The first question here is, what is nature vs nurture? Have you ever heard this discussion? If you are interested even a bit in scientific community affairs, biology and mental health, chances are that you have. Now this debate is quite heated and I will try my best to explain both the sides so that you can have a better understanding before you choose a side. Let me first give you some examples of nature vs nurture.

Nature vs Nurture Examples

Nature

The natural forces that steer the wheel of one’s life, mostly biological factors. Like

• genes,
• DNA,
• chromosomes,
• structure and stature of body,
• cells,
• metabolism, etc

Now these factors affect the very basic functions of one’s body and ultimately life. Like if you have a particular gene in your DNA, then you will be able drink milk even when you become an adult. But on the other hand if that gene is not present then you will be known as lactose intolerant and will lose the ability to digest lactose(a type of sugar typically found in milk) over the years as you become an adult.

Effects

Now you may ask when and how drinking milk or being lactose intolerant became such a heated debate? Or how can it affect someone’s life to an extreme?
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Now this is the interesting part and the reason for the existence of the other side of the argument. We will come later on that. But for now you need to know that these genes can affect and change a lot in a person’s life. For example:

• If you have a gene responsible for diabetes then the chances of getting diabetes increases.
• If your parents or family lineage has a history of losing head hairs in the later part of life then there is a high chance that you will lose them too.
• Same goes with the probability of getting cancer, arthritis, hypo and hyper thyroid, asthma, etc.

Don’t worry it’s not all the bad stuff, if your family lineage has been living in the mountains it is possible that your body also has high muscle density and more red blood cells to carry more oxygen. The normal genetics and DNA stuff that we all study in school.

Nurture

People who advocate that nurturing of one’s life is what shapes it. In simple words, it’s the upbringing that matters the most even over the genes. Now this side of the argument focuses on,

• Schooling,
• Environmental factors,
• Food,
• Education and training,
• Lifestyle,
• Region,
• Climate,
• Social factors, etc.

Now these factors can really shape a person: his identity, character and how he will be living his life, his decisions and even his growth to some extent. Like if you are given world class education, manners, the best type of food, everyone nice to you, and all the good conditions. It may be possible that you too will become a good person.

Effects

Now you may ask that even if a person has all the good and nice conditions he may still face heart diseases, cancer, lung diseases or any kind of mutations that his genes have. So how can it fight DNA? How can one fight its own genetic destiny?

This is the second part of the argument, the other side that I said to discuss later. So what does the people who are in favour of this side say or base their judgement on? Various reasons like:

• If you are a chain smoker, all the smoke will increase the damage done to your lung cells dramatically and even though no one in your family ever encountered any kind of lung disease but all the smoking dramatically increases the chances of you getting cancer.
• Even if the worlds two most obese people marry and give birth to a child, it does not mean that their offspring will also be record breakingly obese. It will depend on his lifestyle and the changes he chooses to make.
• Similarly if a person has genes for depression in their DNA it doesn’t mean that he will be depressed for his whole life. If he receives right counselling and resources then that will increase his chances of being happy in life.

So this was the other side of the argument. Now what do you think, which side is correct and which one will you support?

The impact of both nature and nurture on one’s mental and physical health is not to be ignored. Both sides represent a side of reality which the other side of the argument considered as incomplete. I would also like to point out that any human being is a product of both. Nature is what he is built of and nurture is what he needs to grow and survive. If even one of the elements is taken away from the process the end result would be non-human.

Thanks for reading!