General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDoes anyone have insight on this question?
Has there ever been studies of certain diseases that look at a nominal rate from generation to generation, a nominal rate would be one adjusted for population growth.
Have such studies been done for various cancers, muscular problems, deadly allergies like nut allergies?
The reason that I ask this is some wondering that I did on the role of our modern diet, natural exercise rate changes (people used to do more manual work and got a workout from that), things like the air being full of low level electromagnetic waves today with modern communication, ect.

question everything
(49,480 posts)I know that several studies were done across generations to find the way it is inherited.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)question everything
(49,480 posts)This study has been a major achievement.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Tipperary
(6,930 posts)Not that here is a good disease, but that one is particularly horrific.
csziggy
(34,189 posts)And how they affected genetics. Some diseases seem to be linked to what the parents or grandparents were exposed to.
Geneenvironment interaction (or genotypeenvironment interaction or GxE or G×E) is when two different genotypes respond to environmental variation in different ways. A norm of reaction is a graph that shows the relationship between genes and environmental factors when phenotypic differences are continuous.[1] They can help illustrate GxE interactions. When the norm of reaction is not parallel, as shown in the figure below, there is a gene by environment interaction. This indicates that each genotype responds to environmental variation in a different way. Environmental variation can be physical, chemical, biological, behavior patterns or life events.[2]
Geneenvironment interactions are studied to gain a better understanding of various phenomena. In genetic epidemiology, geneenvironment interactions are useful for understanding some diseases. Sometimes, sensitivity to environmental risk factors for a disease are inherited rather than the disease itself being inherited. Individuals with different genotypes are affected differently by exposure to the same environmental factors, and thus geneenvironment interactions can result in different disease phenotypes. For example, sunlight exposure has a stronger influence on skin cancer risk in fair-skinned humans than in individuals with darker skin.[3]
These interactions are of particular interest to genetic epidemiologists for predicting disease rates and methods of prevention with respect to public health.[2] The term is also used amongst developmental psychobiologists to better understand individual and evolutionary development.[4]
Nature versus nurture debates assume that variation in a trait is primarily due to either genetic differences or environmental differences. However, the current scientific opinion holds that neither genetic differences nor environmental differences are solely responsible for producing phenotypic variation, and that virtually all traits are influenced by both genetic and environmental differences.[5][6][7]
Statistical analysis of the genetic and environmental differences contributing to the phenotype would have to be used to confirm these as geneenvironment interactions. In developmental genetics, a causal interaction is enough to confirm geneenvironment interactions.[8]
More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene%E2%80%93environment_interaction
The Wikipedia article has links to all sorts of books and articles about the subject.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(27,076 posts)Cancer is a very, very ancient disease. Even dinosaurs got it. Grave exhumations in England show that cancer rates, at least there, have been mostly stable for at least a thousand years.
Allergies are quite interesting. A few months ago I was listening to a report on NPR about food allergies in Australia, if I'm remembering correctly. It seems that there's some connection between a person's ancestors not having eaten the food, and then growing up in a place where the foods are now present. I do wish I could remember more.
What doctors have learned in recent years that delaying introduction to potentially allergy-causing foods is not a good idea, and a nursing mom should eat as wide a variety of foods as she wants.
I'd suggest go to a good library and ask librarians for help in researching these things. There will be scholarly articles and research out there which may not be easily accessed by a casual on line search.