EP 160: Reader Question – Is addiction genetic?

This Naked Mind Podcast

Annie Grace

Mental Health, Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2019

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever wondered if addiction is truly genetic in nature? If it is, are we doomed to become an alcoholic if there is alcoholism in our family history? Annie discusses genetic influence, susceptibility, and long term exposure. Annie use research from a variety of sources to answer this age-old question of ‘is addiction genetic’?

Links:

The Addicted Brain by Professor Thad A. Polk

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without
0:15.2	judgment, pain, or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.
0:29.0	Hi friends, I'm back after a really good long weekend and I'm here to answer a question today.
0:34.7	Is addiction genetic and specifically is alcohol addiction genetic? And of course we hear more about
0:41.1	this all the time and I think a big reason that we hear so much about it is because it's still
0:45.2	an area of science that so much work is going on with. There's probably a lot that we don't know
0:52.8	as much as probably a lot of scientists know at least that's what I've heard. So it's clear
0:58.4	obviously that our genes affect us in all sorts of ways. They influence how our bodies react to
1:02.4	external substances like how easily we sub-sunburn for instance and it's clear that two people respond
1:09.2	differently to alcohol or drugs or whatever else they put in our bodies. So for instance if I have a
1:15.5	glass of wine and my friend has a glass of wine it's going to affect us differently. We're going to
1:19.6	feel differently about it. We're get tips you're faster or slower. We're just different people. We're
1:24.6	different human beings. So one glass of wine can affect two people very differently and long term
1:30.9	exposure obviously has very different effects on each of us and there's definitely evidence
1:36.9	for genes that increase proclivity for addiction to alcohol. So just like there's genetic
1:41.9	relationships that influence every other addiction including you know addiction to food or anything
1:47.1	else there is evidence of genetic relationships that influence addiction and addiction to alcohol.
1:53.2	Joelyne Park she's a certified health and wellness expert and she's actually a coach for this
1:58.0	naked mind and she sort of describes this relationship a bit like a yin and a yang like we all kind
2:03.7	of are seeking something we generally have imbalance inside of us and sometimes it's alcohol that
2:09.4	really ticks the box for one person whereas you know food or chocolate might really tick the box
2:15.2	for someone else. So there's sort of this whatever's going on inside of us perhaps it's a deficit
	...

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