How Heredity Shapes Our Health

Heredity
Our Group
Tech Hater=Rina Ravisundar
The Psychologist=Matt Pokorny
The Tech Guru=B.J. Ryan
The Research Specialist=Courtney
Berenshot

Overview of Heredity
• Definition: According to http://www.merriam-webster.com, heredity is the transmission of
qualities from ancestors to descendants through the genes.
• Rating of Control: 0
• Epigenetics: Though you have no control whatsoever over your own genes, traumatic events
and other things like food surpluses can essentially “turn on” or “turn off” genes in your
children and grandchildren. The study of this is called epigenetics. Because of epigenetics,
you essentially have indirect control over your descendants’ genes.
• Selling Point: We have little to no control over us when it comes to heredity. I was surprised
by this because of the way we learned about this in my 7th grade science class. Heredity
stands out above the rest of the world health problems, specifically because we have little to
no control of it, therefore it is important that we understand the topic of heredity.

Research of Influence of HeredityExample: Cystic Fibrosis
•
Stats: About 1,000 new cases of cystic fibrosis are diagnosed each year.
•More than 70% of patients are diagnosed by age two.
•More than 45% of the CF patient population is age 18 or older.
•The predicted median age of survival for a person with CF is in the late 30s.
•
citation- http://www.cff.org/AboutCF/?
gclid=CKrD8avW3rcCFYkWMgodiXAAuQ
•Ex: Fragile X Syndrome
•stat: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common known cause of inherited
intellectual disability. [Read article]
•FXS affects both males and females. However, females often have milder symptoms
than males. The exact number of people who have FXS is unknown, but it has been
estimated that about 1 in 5,000 males are born with the disorder. [Read article]
•citation: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fxs/data.html
•
Ex: Spinal Muscular Atrophy
•
One in every 6,000 babies is born with SMA.
•SMA can strike anyone of any age, race or gender.
•One in every 40 people carries the gene that causes SMA. The child of two carriers
has a one in four chance of developing SMA.

How Environment impacts your
Health
Our Group
Tech Hater= Emma
The Psychologist= Veronica
The Tech Guru= Cameron
The Research Specialist= Annie

Overview of Environment
• Definition: According to Dictionary.com, the definition of
• environment is “the social and cultural forces that shape
• the life of a person or a population”
• Rating of Control: Six
• Selling Point: Depending on the environment you live in, determines the lifestyle you live. Living in
a not-so wealthy environment would lead to fast food restaurants which immensely affects the
health of someone. Living in an environment such as a farm or rural area there is much cleaner air,
and healthier food near. Due to the crops being grown, the most consumed item around those
areas are vegetables.
• Vegetables are some of the healthiest/best for you foods out there.
• sited from http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php
•
reasoning on why environment is the most influential on health: depending on the environment
you live in, determines the lifestyle you live. Living in a not-so wealthy environment would lead to
fast food restaurants which immensely affects the health of someone. Living in an environment
such as a farm or rural area there is much cleaner air, and healthier food near. Due to the crops
being grown, the most consumed item around those areas are
vegetables. Vegetables are some of the healthiest/best for you foods out there.
sited from http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

Research of Influence of Environment
Example: Pollution of Groundwater
• Stat: High levels of nitrates in groundwater lead to incidences of
methemoglobinemia or blue baby syndrome, which robs the blood cells of
their ability to carry oxygen.
Citation: http://www.reopure.com/nitratinfo.html
Example: Air pollution
Stat:Evidence shows that particle pollution—like that coming from that
exhaust smoke—can kill as well as increase the risk of heart disease, lung
cancer and asthma attacks.
Citation:http://www.stateoftheair.org/2013/health-risks/health-risks-
particle.html
Example:Homes and Communities
• Stat: Rundown housing units encourage the growth of mold, dust mites,
insects, rodents which can cause asthmatic problems, allergies, and
respiratory problems
Citation:http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/01735/files/housingeffects.html

Media
Our Group
Tech Hater= Berenice
The Psychologist= JAMES
The Tech Guru=Luke
Research Specialist= Taylor
Put a Pic Here Regarding
Your Determinant

Overview of Media
• Definition: The means of communication through
newspaper, radio, magazine, and television that
influences people widely.
• Rating of Control: the control is a 7. Although we don’t
have to follow it, it does strongly influence our society
which almost forces us to try and fit in.
• Selling Point: The media has a large influence on
society in general, which becomes like a global peer
pressure. Peer pressure is hard to resist when it is just
one person, but when it is a global social norm it
becomes even harder.
Put Pic
Somewhere
around Here
Social media effects mainly
teenagers and young adults. when
they see their favorite stars
doing drugs, some teens feel the
need to do drugs to be like them.

Research of Influence of Media
Example: Children on computers and media in general.
Stat: Children spend more time on media than sleeping. Research has found that media leads to children's
beliefs towards aggressive behavior and violence, sex, and eating disorders. Kids that watch a heavy load of
television on a daily basis could lead to asthma, sleeping disorders, mood changes, and depression.
•Citation http://opi.mt.gov/pdf/health/Fit/mediacolor.pdf
Example: Television for the average person.
Stat: The average person watches 4-5 hours of television a day. Lately food companies have hired famous people to
advertise in order to attract more people.
•Citation http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/How-Media-Can-Affect-Children's-Health.aspx
Example: Lack of communication and social ability due to
Stat: Increased interaction through social medias and networks allows for more communication. However, the quality
of the communication has gone downhill, leaving a lack of face to face interaction. This allows for miscommunications
that would easily be clarified if they had had the voice inflection and body language to help interpret them. Bottom
line: Although social networks open communication, they cannot replace human interaction.
•Citation McQuillen, Jeffrey S. "The influence of technology on the initiation of interpersonal relationships (1)." Education 123.3 (2003): 616+. Student Resources In Context. Web. 12 June 2013

Culture
Our Group
Tech Hater= Honor Stick
The Psychologist= Zara Khan
The Tech Guru= Gray Kafkes
The Research Specialist= Alyssa Adams

Overview of Culture
• Definition: According to Merriam-Webster, culture embodies the arts
and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded
collectively.
• Rating of Control: I would say that the general human population has a
control of about 5, because we cannot control exactly how the culture affects
us. Society has a certain image and we are expected to act and think a certain
way.
• Selling Point: Culture is the most influential determinant in society
because it overall affects our mental and physical health. For example, society
has a standard of being skinny, having shiny hair, or big muscles. These
physical traits do not define us , but society ostracize the people that are
“different”.

Research of Influence of Culture• Example: Music is a significant part of our culture and what the lyrics mean
truly affect young and old people very directly. It can affect the way we act
and think.
• Stat: According to CNN Health, music may impair cognitive abilities in these
scenarios because if you're trying to memorize things in order, you may get
thrown off by the changing words and notes in your chosen song, the
authors speculate.
• Citation: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/27/music-may-harm-your-
studying-study-says/
Example: This shows that overeating in our culture has lead to major health
problems such as obesity, heart attacks, diabetes, and many other dangerous
illnesses. Food has always been a tremendous part of American culture and
continues to grow as well as affect millions.
• Stat: According to National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, food portions in
America's restaurants have doubled or tripled over the last 20 years, a key
factor that is contributing to a potentially devastating increase in obesity
among children and adults.
• Citation:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/news-
events/matte1.htm
• Example: In our culture, we have an image of what women should look like
nowadays, which brings up thoughts of insecurity and depression. We see
models in magazines and wish to look like someone we are not. The question
is why? It is now a part of our culture, more than ever before.
• Stat: According to Teens Finding Hope, Truth is: flaws are not accepted,
regardless of the fact that everyone is flawed and imperfect.
• Citation: http://www.teensfindinghope.org/1/post/2013/04/feeling-insecure.html

Technology
Our Group
Tech Hater= Rohith B.
The Psychologist= Neil O.
The Tech Guru= Yu-Lin Y.
The Research Specialist= Andrew C.
Put a Pic Here Regarding
Your Determinant

Overview of Technology
• Definition: A factor that decisively affects the nature or outcome of something.
Serving to determine or decide something.
• Rating of Control: 7 We can control the impact that technology has on
health merely by the amount of contact we allow ourselves. It is almost inevitable that
at some point, technology will affect us in one way or another, positively or negatively.
This can be controlled by the measures we take to either use this to our advantage.
•
Selling Point: Our current generation is obsessed with technology and it is
growing at an exponential rate. There are many positives and negatives to the
technological boom.

Research of Influence of Technology
Example: Tyrone is a high school boy who loves his twitter account.
He goes on vacation to Canada where there is no wi-fi access and he
cannot check his Twitter account. His addiction cannot be
appeased.
• Stat: In a recent study by researchers at Chicago University, 205
people above 18 years old were asked to record their longings
throughout the day. As normal, alcohol and cigarettes were logged
multiple times, but social media also was at the top of the list.
Citation
Example: One great example is social media. According to an article on
worldcrunch.com, Facebook can cause depression in frequent users. Scrolling
through the lives of friends can often cause dissatisfaction with one’s own
life, along with a feeling of un-fulfillment because of the “lack” of a life.
Stat: In a study of 600 Facebook users, 30% reported that there test
resulted in an envy of their friends. 36% said that they were
frustrated with Facebook
Citation
Example: Shaniqua lives in Harlem and goes to Mcdonald’s daily.
She’s a clear example of an average American who dines in a fast
food restaurant on a regular basis. Her excessive technology use
creates a sedentary lifestyle in which she is not active enough to
maintain a healthy weight.
• Stat: Our sedentary lifestyle increased from 26.4 MET hours in
1965 to 37.7 MET hours in 2009 which has increased obesity rates
in Murica
Citation
CITE

Attitude
Our Group
Tech Hater= Barbra
The Psychologist= Craig
The Tech Guru= Abby
The Research Specialist= Isabel

Overview of Attitude
• Definition: An attitude is an expression of
• favor or disfavor toward a person, place,
• thing, or event
• Selling Point: Your attitude is based on your current
emotional status, which has a lot more ‘control’ than
the other determinants, and therefore has a much
larger impact on how you act emotionally versus
determinants that cannot be changed as easily, such as
environment.
•

Research of Influence of Attitude
• Example: Many years of a stressful attitude may lead to a decline in health in the future.
• Stat: More often than not, the two sets of research showed, cancer victims reported a disturbed childhood.
• More Support: “Dr. George E. Vaillant, professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, believes that the best
protection against today's major illnesses is simply good mental health. Dr. Vaillant studied more than 100
Harvard students, selected for their excellent emotional adjustment... Dr. Vaillant concludes, ''Stress does not
kill so much as ingenious adaptation to stress - call it good mental health or mature coping mechanisms -
facilitates our survival.''
• Citation: How the mind affects our health. (1980, Nov 23). New York Times. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/424012742?accountid=6263
• Example: Mentality of diet awareness and attitude affects the prioritization of different aspects of overall
health.
• Stat: “In both the United States and Geneva, health consciousness was greater among women and more highly
educated persons than among other groups. Compared with Americans, Genevans assigned more importance
to avoiding salt, sugar, and overweight (odds ratio= 1.6, 2.9, and 5.9, respectively) and less importance to
lowering cholesterol (odds ratio=0.6). Genevans were more likely to recognize the relatively high fiber content
of lettuce, carrots, and apples. Recognition of low-fat foods was slightly better in the United States.
Conclusions. Knowledge and attitudes differed despite high general diet and health awareness in both
populations….. Levels of health were negative in their own ways.”
• Citation: Girois, S. B., Kumanyika, S. K., Morabia, A., & Mauger, E. (2001). A comparison of knowledge and attitudes about diet and
health among 35- to 75-year-old adults in the united states and geneva, switzerland. American Journal of Public Health,91(3), 418-
24. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/215105439?accountid=6263

Example: your attitude affects the
amount of exercise you do, if you have a more
positive attitude and motivation you are more
likely to work harder on your physical health
and appearance.
Citation: the mind of our group

Behavior
Our Group
Tech Hater= Sam
The Psychologist= Courtney
The Tech Guru= Christine
The Research Specialist= Cristina

Overview of Behavior
• Definition: the thing that a person or animal
does. According to www.ldoceonline.com
• Selling Point: Behavior can be controlled in some
ways but not others. Your attitude has a impacts
your behavior a lot. If you have a good attitude
towards something, then you are more likely to
do it (example: exercise is a good thing and
should be done often. If you think that it is good,
you are more likely to do it).

Research of Influence of Behavior
Example: stress
• Stat: This (stress) puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems,
including:
• Heart disease
• Sleep problems
• Digestive problems
• Depression
• Obesity
Citation: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/SR00001
Example: You can control behavior by having a plan and a goal. Income does not
affect behavior. Social networks can affect behavior.
Stat: “45% of behavioral variance can be predicted by the belief that you have
control”
Citation: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/how-to-change-behaviour
Example: Not being able to hold a job is behavior that you can’t control but what you
eat and how much you exercise can be controlled
Stat: “The truth is: you can't control all your behavior.”
Citation: http://www.psychologicalselfhelp.org/Chapter4.pdf

How Heredity Shapes Our Health

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