how genes affect moods
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How Genes Affect Moods
Newsweek Health published an article by Dr. Michael Miller entitled, "How Genes Affect Mood." The article begins with an overview of genes: how they don't stop working after one is born, how they are active throughout life, and how they switch on and off in response to the environment. The article also states that these genes don't always respond to the environment in the best of ways. It illustrates this statement with the statistics that one in a hundred people are born with schizophrenia, one in a hundred people develops bipolar disorder, and twenty percent of people experience some form of depression. Miller states that heredity may account for up to eighty percent of the risk of these illnesses, and that due to science, they are starting to find out how exactly genes are affecting these risks. The article then describes how researchers study genes. Either they can pinpoint a suspicious gene in a person from an afflicted family and try to figure out its function or they can use their knowledge of the physiology of the illness to zero in on offending genes. Whichever way they use, the doctors are able to gain insight into the biology of the illness. Miller's article goes on to point out one of the most recent findings to come out of this field of study...