(…or, ‘Alcoholism, as a Disease’) A
Prose Poem
If
we were to look into the study of human genetics, into
inheritance
We
will bump into biochemical genetics also…
Genes
are—for the most part, the common factor of the makings
for human-inherited traits.
It
makes us think of human nature—trying to understand it—or it
does me anyhow, being a recovering
alcoholic!
We
need to understand the development of effective disease
treatment for alcoholism, —by and large, a part of human
nature for a high percentage of the
world!
First
things first: we must place it in the box called “disease”
Inherited
from either parent, is enough cause for this trait to
appear,
Other
than that, it would be by mutation (which
might be called saturation, or changing one’s physiology): meaning, my father was
an alcoholic, and thus, that is enough
to have it arisen in
me!
Plus,
I saturated myself with alcohol for twenty-two years,
consequently I got a double-binging: if that
makes any sense.
Meaning,
had I not inherited it, I created a changeover in my
body chemistry…
In
a like manner, redundant perhaps: it is also enough for such
an inheriting trait, disease or disorder
to have it passed on
through the family...
We
can call a trait a gene if you wish, stored away inside the
chromosome.
It
also can remain hidden, for a few generations: like a bear
from his winter hibernation, reappearing
in spring—
displaying his hunger, for salmon; like
one hungers for
alcohol.
The
DNA we carry in us, in our cells (genome); inside us we have
20,000- Protein coding genes.
Genes
and chromosomes, put them together we have over three
billion… thus, different forces,
influence frequencies:
Gene
flow, mutation… and these frequencies remain for
generations
The
probability of inheritance is high, from one alcoholic to
another:
Resulting in a
potentially toxic dose of this imbalance.
Our whole system is
affected by our genetic code: eye color,
height, hair color, breast cancer, being
color blind, down syndrome, and I could go on and on, but let’s simply call
this by
its truthful name: chromosomal
abnormalities.
You get twenty-three
chromosomes from your mother, likewise,
the same from your father, making
forty-six!
DNA is the
macromolecule storeroom for building mechanical
and useful cellular mechanisms: again,
the gene is simply
a segment of DNA, and
the complete storehouse of DNA is the
genome: hence, variation at the DNA
level, can cause
variation at the level of the entire
organism.
The
gene has the influence on how the cell works: like the inside
of a clock:
Thirty-thousand
different genes to one cell!
I
mean we have the liver cell, and the brain cell and the alcohol
cell… at least in this prose poem!
People
like to make Alcoholism simple, oversimplifying it, and
its cure “You got no will power son,
just put it down!”
That’s
not how it works, not really!
But
that area is for another prose poem, another day perhaps:
but there is nothing simple about this, that is why I took the
trouble
to navigate through this
diagram of genetic
characteristics:
We
are not pea plants, we are human alcoholics, but the pea
plant is interesting, for even they
blend into their parent’s
characteristics, traits that is: for they have both male and
female.
In
closing, let me just say this: I’ve been sober for thirty-years,
should I wish to start drinking for
whatever psychological reasons, I know my A-gene that is now sleeping, should
may
very well awake, and want to make up for
lost time!...
Written
9-4-2014/ No: 4539
