In the days of Hippocrates, diseases were blamed on the gods. He didn’t buy that and explored the causes of disease saying ‘let food be thy medicine’. Nowadays a lot of diseases are being blamed on genes — because knowledge about genes and their effects has advanced tremendously over the last several decades. Genes are the code, or instructions, to assemble proteins, for example to make an enzyme, a hormone or a biochemical such as cholesterol or phospholipids. Read more.