Many aspects of human physique, physiology, and intelligence are inseparable from genetic factors, which are inherited from parents. However, the role of acquired environmental factors cannot be ignored. This is why people should pay special attention to preventing the occurrence of genetic diseases. concerned.
In our daily life, we often see a phenomenon. In a family, the parents are very tall, but their children are not tall; the husband and wife are both short, but their children are not tall. Not all are short in height, but some are very tall: if a couple is short and one is short, the height of their offspring will be uneven, with some being tall and some short. The same goes for other things. For example, diabetes and high blood pressure are both hereditary diseases, but not all children have diabetes or high blood pressure. And whether they are smart or not, they cannot all be the same as their parents.
Why does the above situation occur? Because genetic expression is closely related to environmental conditions, for example, a person’s height is controlled by many factors, such as environmental factors, nutritional factors, living habits, exercise status, nature of work and other factors. Affects height development. Like the Japanese, they were relatively short in the past, but in recent years, it has been observed that the height of Japanese young people has greatly exceeded that of their parents, which also illustrates the interaction between genetics and environment.
Of course, the influence of the environment on heredity is not evenly divided. Some heredity is stable, such as blood type, fingerprints, etc., which cannot be changed. For example, schizophrenia and asthma, environmental factors account for 20%. %, genetic effect accounts for 80%, and in some cases the proportions of the two are almost the same.
In short, we hope to use the external environment as much as possible to remedy genetic defects and prevent environmental factors from causing genetic mutations and causing physical and mental defects. To control poor heredity, we should start from two aspects: controlling the innate heritability and improving the acquired environment. This provides the possibility to improve the quality of the next generation of the population.
Some people believe that children’s intelligence and stupidity are both innate and inherited from their parents and cannot be changed.
This conclusion is too absolute. The health of the baby is closely related to the health of the parents, but children born to couples with high IQ coefficients are not necessarily smart. Because to cultivate a highly gifted child, if you do not provide education from the fetal stage, newborn stage, and early childhood stage, you will lose all your advantages. We cannot exaggerate the role of heredity and ignore the influence of acquired environment, but we also cannot emphasize the importance of acquired education and deny the role of innate heredity. Only a balance of both is the basis for normal development of intelligence.
There are many genetic diseases that have a significant impact on children\’s intellectual development and must be given sufficient attention. For example, Down syndrome (also known as congenital stupidity, tongue-sticking dementia), because the 21st pair of autosomes has one more pair than usual, is the most common type of congenital brain hypoplasia, accounting for 10% of all patients with mental retardation. %~20%. These patients have special faces, with small eye fissures, wide distance between the eyes, flat noses, salivation, and often stick out their tongues and smile. Such patients are often accompanied by other congenital malformations, among which congenital heart disease is the most common. Their resistance to diseases is also very weak, and they are susceptible to infection and early death. The survival period of patients varies. Mild patients can live to adulthood, but they have low intelligence. Both male and female patients are infertile. There is also phenylketonuria, which is the lack of a substance called phenylalanine hydroxylase in the human body, resulting in excessive accumulation of phenylalanine and other intermediate metabolites (such as phenylpyruvic acid, etc.) in the body, causing damage to the central nervous system Severe mental retardation in young children caused by the nervous system. The main symptoms in infancy are vomiting, eczema, restlessness and the smell of rat urine. If treatment is started one month after the onset of these symptoms, the intellectual development can be close to normal; if treatment is given after 2 to 3 years old, it has already occurred. Brain damage is difficult to recover from, and intelligence is also severely affected.
In addition, there are several types of mental retardation such as cretinism, microcephaly and megalencephaly.
Another cause of mental retardation is that pregnant women suffer from viral diseases such as rubella and chickenpox during pregnancy, excessive radiation exposure during pregnancy, pregnancy toxemia and other systemic diseases, etc. These factors may affect the normal development of the fetus. On the one hand, these factors directly cause fetal brain development disorders and imperfect brain cell development. On the other hand, they also affect the development of bone marrow, endocrine and other systems, which in turn affect brain development.
In addition, most children born to women who smoke and drink alcohol are mentally retarded, and 42% of children with Down syndrome born to older mothers have this disease.
Finally, there are acquired factors, namely birth injuries during childbirth, which affect the early intellectual development of newborns.
Therefore, in order to raise a smart child, we must start by ensuring that there are no congenital genetic diseases, and take care of every aspect of marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth to lay a solid foundation for acquired education. Even if the child’s parents have a low IQ, they can still conceive and give birth to a child who is smart, healthy, and has an intelligence that exceeds that of their parents.
This article is provided by Baidu Reading and is excerpted from \”Three Months Before Pregnancy – Pregnancy Preparation Period\” Author: Wang Liru