Marry into a healthy family
Towards a happy marriage
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If you want a happily-ever-after ending to your love story ensure
that a thorough health check is conducted not just on Mr/Miss Right, but
their entire family too.
Two new studies have suggested that choosing relatives carefully is
one way of protecting your heart from being broken. According to one
study it was reported if an identical twin suffered from melanoma, this
increased the risk of the other twin developing the skin cancer at a
later stage.
Yes, if your partner’s blood relation is suffering from a disease
that can be hereditary, your husband/wife or child too could get it at a
later stage in life. This holds true to many ailments like heart
problems, various kinds of cancer, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy
and more. Character traits, finances and others habits can be changed
and corrected, but not some deadly genes.
After 15 years of marriage it would be terrible to be told that your
spouse or child is suffering from a hereditary disease that he/she
inherited from a grandparent. Sometimes, even a parent who is healthy
can be a carrier. It might sound selfish but for long-term happiness
it’s worth checking out the family’s medical history.
You don’t want things like a history of mental issues to be brought
to your knowledge only after you discover your sister-in-law behaving a
bit crazy. These genes haunt generations and your child could be
vulnerable to them.
Things like baldness can be ignored unless you are an extremely vain
creature, but be attentive to other serious issues. When conducting a
health check look out for things like whether the disease is recessive
or dominant, senior scientist and geneticist, Centre for Cellular and
Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Dr. K. Thangaraj says.
“The chances are 50 percent if the genes causing the disease are
dominant. If recessive they are 25 percent.”And with certain genes,
grandchildren are the ones who suffer them. Also keep an eye out for
unhealthy relatives as Dr. K. Thangaraj says, “Since Y chromosome is
inherited by males, all the male members in the lineage inherit it. In
case of maternal lineage, the mitochondrial RNA is inherited.” The road
to true love is never said to be smooth, but it can surely be a healthy
one.
If you have any doubts or your partner needs to sort out some issues
senior geneticist, Centre for Liver Research and Diagnostics, Hyderabad
Dr. M. N. Khaja recommends genetic counselling. He feels this must be
encouraged before marriage. This way both parties will get into the
relationship with their eyes wide open and can monitor children and get
them tested from when they are born for certain symptoms. Ignoring or
working around a loved one’s flaws is no big deal, but overlooking their
rouge gene could be deadly in the long run.
- Deccan Chronicle
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