How to prevent genetic diseases

In my life, I often see many patients with genetic diseases. There are people who have a genetic disease of white skin, and there are people who are born color blind. I have a classmate who has inherited premature gray hair. When I saw it, I thought it was due to excessive stress. After talking to him, I found out that it was genetic. I want to know if genetic diseases are innate? Also, can genetic diseases be prevented?

Prevention before symptoms appear

Some genetic diseases often develop under certain conditions. For example, familial colon polyps often cause no discomfort before middle age, but are prone to cancer at the age of 40-50. Most patients with red blood cell G6PD deficiency develop hemolysis after taking antimalarial drugs, antipyretics or eating broad beans. For genetic diseases such as these, if they can be diagnosed early before their typical symptoms appear and preventive measures are taken in time, the patient can often maintain a normal phenotype throughout his or her life.

Population screening of genetic diseases with high morbidity and serious harm is an important means of prevention before symptoms appear. A census can be either national or selective. The former is suitable for diseases with high gene frequency, such as red blood cell G6PD deficiency, thalassemia, familial hypothyroidism, etc. For example, the Guangdong Province Favism Research Collaborative Group once surveyed more than 38,000 people in two communes (townships) in Xingning County and found more than 2,000 people with G6PD deficiency. They then concentrated the prevention of favism on this small group of people, with good results. Selective screening often uses a combination of related diseases for testing, which is called multidisease screening technique. This type of screening is usually performed on newborns.

Prenatal prevention is a new development in prevention before symptoms appear. For example, some people give small doses of phenobarbital to pregnant women before delivery to prevent neonatal hyperbilirubinemia; some people give vitamin B2 to mothers in late pregnancy to prevent recessive hereditary epilepsy; and some people prohibit pregnant women who are pregnant with galactosemia from eating foods containing lactose. Ten out of 11 children did not show symptoms of galactosemia.

Prevention methods

The prevention of genetic diseases mainly focuses on the following aspects: environmental protection, detection of genetic carriers, genetic counseling, marriage guidance and selective abortion, and prevention before symptoms appear.

Regarding the prevention of genetic diseases, the above explains how to prevent them from two aspects. In fact, the manifestation characteristics of some genetic diseases may not necessarily appear immediately. There is an incubation period, so some people do not have any abnormalities until they die. The main point is to have a healthy and positive attitude towards life, so that you can live happily and not care about the opinions of the outside world.