The Debate About Certain Behaviors And Heredity

Hereditary genetic factors seem to be catching much of the blame for more and more health issues that a person is dealing with and now smoking is being added to the list of genetic factors. Researchers already know that most people that have a addictive personality do have a tendency to use and often abuse alcohol, drugs and tobacco products because of these genetic predispositions; but is this really the case?

Most people would agree that a person's behavior is linked to what they were exposed to as a child in their formative years and this is becoming hard to disprove because as it turns out most people cannot remember in detail these formative years, making it harder to pinpoint if the behavior is learned by being exposed to such behaviors, or that the cause can be traced to a family genetic predisposition link and the behavior is manifesting itself through DNA codes in the genes.

This debate and these issues have seen quite a few bouts in the ring in the past and many professionals are of the opinion that it falls under the banner of nature vs. nurture argument. This is also presenting a problem for one side, in that without nature there would be no nurture and a human being that is never allowed to interact or devoid of influences by other humans, they simply would not make a very good behavior study subject.

While it may seem like much of nature is inborn, ultimately children who grow up in a closet or in a destructive environment are negatively influenced from the beginning and no matter what their genetic pool contains they cannot grow up well because of these external forces. Essentially there is no real way to determine which one holds more influence because both definitely contribute to a human being as a whole.

Experts know that the predisposition to show addictive traits is very evident in many people, but this in no way will dictate what drugs or chemicals a individual will use and abuse. The argument that smoking is directly tied to heredity has yet to be proven beyond doubt, but who knows; maybe one day researchers will be able to connect the dots. The best advice for anyone coming from a light em' up environment, should totally steer clear of tobacco products to beat the odds and break the cycle, which as some researchers point out is more about nurturing than what was passed down by nature. Anyone that is familiar with addictive behavior should keep a safe distance away from addictive substances