Health and Wellness 1515Chapter
How Genes Affect Health
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Chapter INTRODUCTION
• Babies inherit about 100,000 different genes from their parents
• The advances in diagnosing and detecting inherited disorders have generated complex economic, personal, social and ethical problems
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Chapter CONGENITAL DEFECTS AND TERATOGENS
• Newborns with observable physical or biological abnormalities -Congenital defects
• Most congenital defects are due to a complex interaction of genes and environment
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ChapterEnvironmental agents during pregnancy
• prescription and illegal drugs
• viral and bacterial infections
• alcohol consumption during pregnancy
• smoking
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Chapter Nutrition Prevents Defects
•Folic Acid(Folate)– Need to get adequate
during pregnancy– Beans, green leafy
veggies– Good for nerve
development
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Chapter Environmental Factors/Healthy Birth• Alcohol- most common
problem and effect
• Drugs
• Smoking
• Caffeine
• Bacteria/virus
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Chapter Hereditary Diseases• A hereditary (genetic) disease
results from a defective gene that is passed on to the child in the sperm, egg, or both
• As a result of the defective gene(s), a protein is either not produced or is abnormal, causing the problem
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Chapter Examples of Hereditary Diseases
•Hemophilia - an enzyme called Factor III is defective
• Phenylketonuria (PKU) - a enzyme that is needed to digest amino acid, phenylalanine, is defective
• Sickle cell disease - defect in hemoglobin proteins in red blood cells
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Chapter HUMAN HEREDITY: Genes• Genes are present in chromosomes in a
chemical substance called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
• Altogether the 46 human chromosomes have about 200,000 genes that uniquely determine a human being
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Chapter PREVENTING GENETIC DISEASES:Prenatal Testing
• Genetic counseling allows a couple to be fully informed before, during and after a pregnancy with regards to genetic defects
• Amniocentesis
• Ultrasound scanning
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Chapter
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Chapter PREVENTING GENETIC DISEASES:
• Very few hereditary diseases can be treated effectively
-- PKU is an exception
Gene therapy is a technique for replacing defective genes with normal ones in certain tissues of a person affected with a hereditary disease
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Chapter
Genetic Testing• The human Genome
Project
• Genetic tests that predict disease risk– Breast cancer– Colon cancer– Alzheimers disease.
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Chapter Genes=Traits
•1 gene=many traits
•Many genes=1trait
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Chapter Genetics Or Environment
• Many Traits/Diseases unknown %– Hypertension– Allergies– Depression– IQ– alcoholism