Largest-ever analysis finds genetic links to smoking and drinking.
A study involving almost 3.4 million people with diverse ancestries has identified thousands of genetic variants associated with tobacco and alcohol use.
More than 3,500 genetic variations that potentially affect smoking and drinking behaviour have been identified in a study involving almost 3.4 million people with African, American, East Asian and European ancestry.
The findings, published in Nature on 7 December1, highlight how increasing sample size and ethnic diversity improves the power of such genome-screening analyses — called genome-wide association studies (GWAS) — to reveal how various traits are linked to genes, combinations of genes or mutations.
Smoking and drinking are important risk factors for several physical and mental illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases and psychiatric disorders. Although both behaviours are influenced by environmental and social factors, there is evidence that genetics can affect tobacco and alcohol consumption. “We’re at a stage where genetic discoveries are being translated” into clinical applications, says study co-author Dajiang Liu, a statistical geneticist at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. “If we can forecast someone’s risk of developing nicotine or alcohol dependence using this information, we can intervene early and potentially prevent a lot of deaths.”
Ancestral diversity
Scientists use GWAS to find genetic ties to diseases or behaviours by comparing genetic sequences in large numbers of people. But so far, most of these studies have focused on European populations. Liu and his colleagues constructed a model that incorporated the genomic data of 3,383,199 people, 21% of whom had non-European ancestry.'>>>
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04378-w?
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I'll be going the way I've lived. 
