Wellness & Fitness

Consult an expert to establish the root of your anger fits

decision

You cannot know for sure what nature will conspire to give you. PHOTO | FILE

My fits of anger are frustrating me by the day because I can’t keep my cool even when faced with small upsets. Is it hereditary?
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Your question demands a short lesson in genetics of inheritance, as taught in my day in ‘A’ level biology classes.

Born on July 20 1822, Johann Mendel (Later Gregor Mendel) is the undisputed father of genetics. Of all things, the Austrian Monk worked with peas, growing them in the Monastery gardens. His genius was his ability to cross breed different types of pea plants.

He was able to prove that when a yellow pea and a green pea were bred together, their offspring was always yellow (yellow was dominant). In the next generation, green reappeared, but was in a minority, with one green for three yellow!

If it all sounds too complicated, let me explain it in relation to your question. You are the product of genetic material contributed by your mother and father (them being like the yellow and green peas). Genetically therefore, you must in some ways resemble only these two people.

The reality, however, is that as in the case of the peas, some genes are dominant, while others are called recessive, and can be dominated by the others in one generation but not, forever.

If, for example you inherited the characteristic of short temper from your father’s side of the family, then if you have brothers and sisters some of them will have the same tendency as yourself. If it is dominant, then the ratio would be three siblings with anger traits, for one without.

Just for completion, let me point out that your uncles and aunts on your father’s side would have similar afflictions in the same ratios. As you must have deduced by now, your children would be expected to have the same challenges as you, and their grandfather.

If only life was as simple as that! It gets rather more complicated because some of the genes from your mother and father interact to either increase or reduce the level of visibility of certain characteristics, in your case, propensity to anger.

As though that is not enough, the environment in which you exist also modifies the extent to which genes can be expressed.

Two examples will illustrate this point. If you are in a difficult marriage, have financial problems and in addition there is a problem with alcohol, it’s possible that your anger problems will manifest at the place of work.

For a person in a stable marriage, a good job, and at peace with his spiritual life, although he might have inherited the same “anger genes” as yourself, they might not find expression as easily. His happy environment might protect him from harm.

A set of identical twins inherit exactly the same genes from their parents. Their lives could however take completely different trajectories depending on where they find themselves.

If one is brought up in an environment full of junk food, no exercise and lots of sugary fizzy drinks, he could put on much weight and develop diabetes at a young age.

If his twin brother is careful with diet, exercises regularly and keeps his weight at the optimal level, he might, in spite of the same gene that could have led to diabetes, live for many years in a healthy state. The outcome of your life therefore is the result of the interplay between your genes and the environment.

Sadly, I am not done with you in this lesson! There are some serious conditions that are passed on from parents to their children. Sickle cell disease and hemophilia are such examples.

Your intelligence, height, colour of your eyes, and many other characteristics are all inherited from your parents. The trouble however, is that you cannot know for sure what nature will conspire to give you.

If a girl chose to marry a dark, tall, handsome intelligent man so that her sons could be like him, she might end up contributing the genes from her side of the family and end up with a bunch of light skinned, short, unintelligent boys just like her brothers!

Even as you try to internalise this rather complex subject, it has its lighter side as well. If you look at people’s earlobes, some hang free, others are attached, and still others are somewhere in between. That is the work of genes! Start checking out earlobes.

Did you know that 70 per cent of people of European ancestry can roll their tongue into a tube shape! Genetics at work again. Can you do a tube with your tongue? One could go on with other examples, but the point is made.

In your case, and at its simplest level, it is possible that your fits of anger come from either your mother’s or father’s side of the family.

It is however possible that the same tendency to fits of anger could be from the environment you were either brought up in or the one you currently live in.

A trained professional might help you figure out which is which.