The influence of genes on our health is well known. The probability that we will or will not suffer from some diseases has a genetic component that makes us more or less prone to suffer from them.
Some genes, for example, increase the predisposition to suffer from certain types of cancer. In other cases, they exert a protective effect, reducing the frequency of the appearance of a disease in population groups with a certain genotype.
Therefore, our genetic inheritance combined with those factors that come from the environment, lifestyle, etc., largely conditions our health.
But what do memes have to do with all this? Could it be that we laugh when we see them and that releases endorphins, with the consequent relaxing effect?
No, that's not what I mean.
First of all: what is a meme?
The word meme is generally associated with a funny image or video that spreads quickly among the population. However, that was not the meaning with which it was initially coined.
In the famous 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins proposes the definition of culture as a set of ideas, knowledge, behaviors, values, and norms that can be transmitted between individuals.
He suggests the term meme to refer to the unit of cultural transmission, whose properties would be similar to those of genes. Among others, the ability to be transmitted, the fidelity of replication, and persistence over time.
A meme can be a philosophical idea, a melody, an artistic creation, an advertising slogan, a poem, or a fashion. In essence, a cultural creation is replicated through imitation, teaching, or assimilation. It is transmitted between brains horizontally, vertically, and even obliquely, spreading within a population and can be passed on to successive generations.
Since the advent of cell phones and the Internet, the transmission of memes has accelerated exponentially. It is now possible for a concept or idea to reach millions of people in a few minutes.
Memes don't "travel" alone, they interact.
Memes interrelate with each other. They form complex constructs, such as a philosophical theory, a religion, or a system of social customs.
The set of cultural notions that are inherited from generation to generation conditions what is or is not socially accepted. This can include anything from not eating certain foods to practicing cannibalism. From teenage weddings to exclusive marriage to people of the same ethnic group.
This theory of the memetic (or memetic) evolution of culture is quite controversial, and the opinions of biologists, sociologists, or anthropologists differ. But the concept of meme is accepted.
But what do memes have to do with health?
Going back to health, how do memes influence health? Let's think of it this way: if behavior is socially accepted and spreads to the rest of the population, seeing it as something positive, its effect on health can be significant, right?
Kuru was a neurodegenerative disease of the New Guinea natives. Among the customs of these tribes was to ingest the brains of the deceased to acquire their wisdom. When cannibalism was officially banned, the disease began to decline and eventually disappeared, as it was caused by a prion that replicated in brain tissue.
Without going to the extremes of cannibalism, there are many other behaviors or social conventions that can affect our health.
Without going any further, the use of face masks, the most current example. We can, of course, find others, such as the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs or risky sexual practices.
There was a time when there was no TV series or movie in which the actors did not smoke or drink to excess. Drug use or risky sexual practices were also commonplace among various groups and were seen as totally acceptable.
Here's the thing. Good memes are not always good memes. That is, an idea capable of being replicated and transmitted effectively among the population is not always true or beneficial to our health.
Thus, for example, much fake news about diseases and treatments or the supposed benefits of certain diets is transmitted and maintained more easily than scientifically proven facts.
The advantage of memes is that they evolve and can change. What is acceptable at one time may no longer be acceptable if mechanisms are put in place to modify the particular meme or set of memes.
In this way, new social norms would be created that would convey ideas beneficial to our health. Or, at least, they would prevent the transmission of harmful ideas. It is a more Lamarckian evolution, of acquired traits than Darwinian.