(Ecns.cn)！When it comes to dominant genetic inheritances, skin color, height, as well as shapes of maxillae immediately come to mind. But those are not the important ones you need be aware of. What you do have to pay extra attention to are inheritable diseases.
Families with dominant genes for a disease show the disease in every generation and there are often several affected family members in each one. Unless the disease involves a sex-limited structure like the uterus or penis, males and females are affected equally. Every affected child has had an affected parent, thus, it's important to watch out for the most common inheritable diseases and, in accordance, take safety precautions in daily life.
Hyperlipidemia and hypertension
The chance for offspring to get hyperlipidemia or hypertension is approximately as high as 50% if one of the parents carries the diseases, and the chance is even as high as 75% if both parents are cardiovascular disease (CDC) patients. Therefore, families with a disease history of CDC should regularly have their children tested.
Allergy and asthma
Annoying but true: even if one of the parents has a hypersensitive physique, or has been allergic to things like seafood and pollen, the chances it will pass to the next generation is as high as 30% to even 50%. Eighty percent of children get asthma from their parents.
Diabetes mellitus
As one of the most typical dominant inheritable diseases, the inheritance rate among relatives of diabetes patients is 17 times higher than those who are not. Moreover, diabetes mellitus type 2, characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency, is more likely to pass down to the next generations.
The good news is that diabetes is often initially managed by increasing exercise and dietary modification. So the best bet is to pay more attention to harmful lifestyles if diabetes is unfortunately a 'curse' in your family.
Rhinitis
A number of ENT (ear, nose & throat) diseases are dominant inheritances, especially allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinitis, and nasosinuitis. One third of children in allergic rhinitis families get the disease when only one parent carries it; while two thirds get allergic rhinitis when both parents carry the disease.
Common folk tips state that washing the nose with warm, clean water every morning helps.
Obesity
Overeating combined with the wrong mix of fats in one's diet can cause obesity to be carried from one generation to the next, researchers in France discovered last year, and the chance is as high as 53%.
It has also been reported that it's an omega imbalance that causes obesity to 'be inheritable.'
Omega-6 and omega-3, both polyunsaturated fatty acids, are each critical to good health. Yet, too much of the first and not enough of the second can lead to overweight offspring, scientists have shown in experiments with mice designed to mirror recent shifts in human diet, said AFP last July.
Therefore, it is vital to keep a balance in your intake of the two elements.
