Can we change personal traits inherited from our parents?

Many people believe high level of cholesterol is connected with nutrition. If you want to live long and happily - eat fruits and be active.
But sometimes high cholesterol depends not on the lifestyle and nutrition but is simply inherited. 1 of 500 people has a special genetic mutation. It leads to poor cholesterol absorption and so, it is accumulated in blood. Such people have high cholesterol even on a vegetarian diet.

One of the genes responsible for the loss of hair is located in X-chromosome. Men inherit it from their mothers. But don't rush to blame your mother and her kin for your thinning hair. There are other genes that take part in hair loss, including those inherited from father. Besides, ecological factors also play a role in it.

When a mother is reproaching her child for a bad mark, saying that she was a good pupil, she can be partially right. Progress in studies on 55% depends on heredity. Thousands of genes are responsible for academic performance. So, if your parents showed decent brainpower during school years, then you have all perquisites for it, too.

Do you drink a lot of coffee? It's the genes to blame! Scientists compared people, who can't live without coffee and those, who can. It turned out that the second group of people have a special gene that slows down caffeine absorption. That's why they don't need to drink coffee so often to cheer up.

Type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed among people of advancing age. But it also happens, children and teenagers with active life style have symptoms of this disease. Medics call it "adult-onset diabetes of young people". It also appears due to a genetic mutation, though unhealthy diet can affect it negatively, too.

Inability to distinguish certain colors is usually inherited. The gene, responsible for color blindness is given to sons by their mothers. So apparently, most of the people suffering from color blindness are men. It occurs due to the fact that their defect of the only X-chromosome is not compensated, while women in this case have a "spare" X-chromosome from their father.

Amazingly, but 65% of adult people have low ability to digest lactose (milk sugar). Again, it's a special gene to blame. While a child is small and needs milk to survive, his organism produces a ferment to digest lactose. With age the ability to absorb milk products decreases. Only some people on this planet have a gene of lactose tolerance and that means they can digest milk at any age without unpleasant consequences.

Scientists confirmed what we already suspected - not every person can drive a car. You can learn the rules and pass the exams, but if you have specific changes in your genes, affecting space orientation, reaction rate and memory, you shouldn't drive. You will be constantly distracted and get into accidents more often. By the way, scientists say, about 30% of people have such changes in their genes.

Disposition to myopia is also hereditary. If both parents suffer from this affliction than their child runs a 50% risk to have it too.
Still, scientists believe not everything is conditioned by genetics. Spend less time in front of the computer, avoid eyestrain and your risk of poor eyesight will be much lower.

It may sound surreal, but the secret of a person's popularity is hidden in his genes! That was a result of long and diligent research made by scientists in Harvard. They believe, that at the dawn of evolution people possessing valuable information about food sources or danger were in the center of their social group. Then they passed their genes on to their descendants. Now the inheritors of such genes are popular among age-mates, everyone wants to be friends with them. Why does this happen? We are about to know, because the research is still underway.