Faith can protect you from falling into alcohol addiction during adolescence, according to research on the influence of religiosity on the genetic heritage of the alcohol problem, conducted by scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The level of the phenotype responsible for an alcohol problem may depend on the social environment, said Tanya MM Button of the University of Colorado in Boulder, a member of the research group.
Phenotypes are a perceptible and measurable set of features of an organism. The phenotype is closely related to the genotype. It is the interaction between the genotype and the environment that gives rise to the phenotype.
People with a religious background may display less of their alcohol-responsible phenotype than those who come from non-religious communities. Moreover, the effect of genes on these phenotypes also varies with the environment. We also learned that genes play a greater role in these types of phenotypes among people from urban backgrounds, as well as among unmarried women and non-religious people, Button added.
However, such an effect does not exist in the period of early maturity – informs the EurekAlert website (PAP).