8 Surprising Traits You Never Knew They Could Be Hereditary
How much you like to work out
If you’d rather be a couch potato than sweat out at the gym, it’s not necessarily because you’re a lazy person. Based on genetic and behavioral research, it’s something you’ve inherited from your parents.
According to a 2014 study of rats carried out by the University of Georgia and published in The Journal of Physiology, an individual’s predilection to like or dislike exercise might have a genetic explanation. It’s not the fact that you’ve never or rarely seen your parents working out, it’s more about the presence of a specific gene that affects the release of dopamine, the reward neurons that stimulate life-sustaining activities like eating healthy food, drinking water or working out. “These genes also act indirectly, by their associations with people’s acquired motivation to be active and also with select personality traits,” explained Rodney Dishman of the University of Georgia.
Genetics might be to blame for your less than athletic body, but you can still adopt certain healthy habits and find Successful Ways to Stay Active and Healthy This Fall.
How many colors you are able to see
You might get your eye color from your parents, but that’s not the only influence they can have when it comes to colors. Your mom and dad can also be responsible for how many of them you are able to see. Even if none of your parents are color blind, they might still carry a specific gene that affects the perception of colors and pass it on to you. This means you might have trouble discerning between red, green and blue. About 95% of people with color blindness are men.
At the other end of the spectrum, you could end up with super vision, called tetrachromacy in medical terms. Most people are able to see three dimensions of colors, but tetrachromatic individuals have an extra cone gene that allows them to see around 10 million different colors. Since it is passed on the X chromosome and women have two of those, women are more likely to have tetrachromacy, according to a study published in the Journal of Vision in 2010.
Related: Eye Health: 6 Effective Tips to Maintain Healthy Vision
