Happiness and its molecular fingerprints

Abstract

Happiness and well-being are in part heritable, but modifiable traits. The promotion of well-being and happiness, much like the primary prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCD), will become increasingly important in a world that is facing an NCD epidemic due to demographic aging and urbanization. The costs for the often lifelong treatment of NCDs are already high and may increase further with the arrival of expensive personalized medicine. The effective promotion of happiness at the individual and population level in order to guide policy requires a causal and mechanistic understanding of its modifiable determinants. With more than half of the world's population living in cities, it becomes, for example, important to understand how environmental, social, and lifestyle characteristics of urban life influence well-being. Yet, the correlation between many of these factors and the fact that they act in concert poses a large challenge in causal inference. The -omics biomarkers which form a pillar of personalized medicine are at the same time essential research instruments of modern-day observational epidemiology. The paper discusses how they can be applied to overcome the challenges researchers face in studies on the association of complex risk and protective patterns with specific well-being phenotypes and their relation to diseases. Important concepts are discussed in the context of well-being that were recently developed by epidemiologists to stimulate more investments into the understanding of the modifiable part of health (e.g., Exposome; Meet-in-the-Middle; Mendelian Randomization) to match the huge investments that went into genetic research.

Application of the urban exposome framework using drinking water and quality of life indicators: a proof-of-concept study in Limassol, Cyprus

“…Following the urban exposome approach, the quality of life in urban centers is concurrently assessed together with other indicators, such as water quality, or prevalence/incidence of communicable, and non-communicable diseases using interdisciplinary methodology. This framework expands previous study approaches where the urban exposome is defined as the sum of exposures in cities (Probst-Hensch, 2017; Robinson et al, 2018), and proposes a more interdisciplinary and holistic approach to assess health determinants of the general population.…”

“…Within the context of improving urban life, novel paradigms such as the exposome can be adapted to provide a more interdisciplinary approach in tackling urban problems. The urban exposome can be viewed simply as the totality of environmental exposures occurring in cities (Probst-Hensch, 2017; Robinson et al, 2018). However, this definition is rather centered on individuals and it does not include wider determinants of urban health.…”

Mapping drinking water and quality of life aspects in urban settings: an application of the urban exposome

“…The urban exposome as a study framework where cities and their smaller areas are the measurable units can be useful in monitoring urban health in a holistic manner. In other studies, the urban exposome defined as the totality of environmental exposures occurring in cities (28,29). So far, the use of human exposome in city-based cohorts has been focused on specific exposure-effect association testing in one or multiple cohorts being pooled together (28).…”

Genes-in-Dyads: A Study of Relationship Quality

“…Evidence suggests that while well-being is partly modifiable—and hence amenable to policy interventions—it also has a stable “trait” component or individual-specific set points around which transient states fluctuate (Diener et al, 2006; Probst-Hensch, 2017). Such “trait well-being” has specifically been linked to lower morbidity and increased longevity (Diener et al, 2006).…”