Tom
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Tom has alcoholism. It has impacted his life greatly, but it has impacted his family life the most, including his kids. His form of alcoholism was caused by mistakes on many of his genes, and his environment. He has turned to ordering a test from online that shows his genetic makeup. He wants to know which of his genes contain the mutations that might explain why he developed alcoholism, so that is why he resorted to purchasing a kit from online. Businesses have sprung up all over the web for purchasing kits like these. They take genetic data from people with his disease and genetic data from people without it and compare the two. He could benefit from understanding his own genome, because he could learn how to better control his alcoholism. He is hopeful that his genes have made a contribution though. The scientists have randomly changed one letter in some mice's gene code to see which ones consume alcohol. By studying identical twins and adoption cases, scientists have figured out that half of the causes are genetic and the other half environmental. The controlled environment of the cage the mice are in gives them a free choice without environmental factors which means the need for alcohol is by their genetics. Tom gets that there is a signal in his mind telling him to drink. It appears that they aren't very far down the line on finding out the particular gene associated with alcoholism and that frustrates Tom. Alcoholism is very complex and that faces scientists with a problem. All isn't well for Tom, the results of the kit were frustrating for him, because the scientists aren't far down the line of finding a particular gene for Tom.