Does Being Overweight Change Your DNA?

By Kristie Leong MD on January 27th, 2011 – healthmad.com

You already know that excess fat pads your hips and tummy and makes it more challenging to look good in a teeny, tiny bikini – but does it change your DNA too? The idea that being overweight alters the genetic material that controls  cells is an intriguing one – but according to new research published in BMC Medicine, this idea may be right on target.

Effects of Being Overweight: Does It Alter Your DNA?

DNA is the genetic material that governs the functions of cells and directs all aspects a person’s physiology. You’re born with a certain set of genes, or DNA, that your parents give you, but it turns out that DNA can be altered and modified by the environment.

Eating carrots may help prevent death from heart disease

Posted on efitnessnow.com on 11/23/10

According to a new study, eating foods like carrots and certain fruits, fights disease and may prolong life.

A team of researchers discovered carotenoids including beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and lycopene created by plants and micro-organisms act as antioxidants and counteract this damage.

The researchers determined, oxygen-related damage to DNA, proteins and fats might play a part in the development of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer. That damage can be eased by the antioxidant action of carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and lycopene. Most people get these nutrients through foods, like fruits and veggies, that are loaded with them.

The research team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered that over 14 years of follow-up, many people — regardless of lifestyle habits, demographics or overall health risks — had fewer life-limiting health troubles as their blood concentrations of alpha-carotene rose.

The study found that the risk of death in those who had blood alpha-carotene levels ranging from 2 and 3 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL) was 23% lower compared to those who had concentrations between 0 and 1.

The research only looked at a person’s alpha-carotene levels. It did not measure blood levels of other antioxidants, so it is difficult to know if alpha-carotene alone is associated with health benefits or if other constituents were also involved.

DNAWellnessInfo.com Resource:  http://www.efitnessnow.com/news/2010/11/23/eating-carrots-may-help-prevent-death-from-heart-disease/

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Are Linked to Longevity

1/20/10

By THOMAS M. BURTON

Omega-3 fatty acids, from fish like salmon and other sources, have for years been shown to help lower levels of heart disease and cardiac death.

New research suggests the fatty acids may possess an even more fundamental benefit: Heart patients with high omega-3 intake had relatively longer “telomeres,” which are stretches of DNA whose length correlates with longevity.

Cardiologists from the University of California, San Francisco, and other hospitals measured telomere length over five years in 608 patients who had coronary-artery blockage and previous heart attacks. Researchers found that people with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their white blood cells experienced significantly less shortening of telomeres over five years, as compared with patients with lower omega-3 levels.

“What we’re demonstrating is a potentially new link between omega-3 fatty acids and the aging process,” said Ramin Farzaneh-Far, a clinical cardiologist and assistant medical professor at UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital who is the lead author of the research.

Published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, the study focused only on “marine” omega-3 found in fish, not the type found in vegetable sources like flaxseed, walnuts, canola oil or soybean oil.

The study didn’t distinguish between meals of fatty fish and fish-oil supplements—leaving open the question of whether it’s better for people to eat more fish, to eat plants such as flaxseed or just to take omega-3 supplements.

The American Heart Association, in a 2002 scientific statement in the journal Circulation, concluded that consuming omega-3 fatty acids in fish or supplements “significantly reduces subsequent cardiac and all-cause mortality.” The fish most often cited are salmon, herring and sardines.

John LaPuma, a Santa Barbara, Calif., physician and nutrition expert, says, “The best data are in fish rather than supplements, but the data for supplements are better than they were five years ago.”

There is “very little good evidence for the omega-3s from flax and walnuts,” said Dr. LaPuma, author of “ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.” But these foods have other benefits, he said. For instance, “flax meal, by itself, is an important part of lowering LDL,” or bad cholesterol, Dr. LaPuma said.

Researchers in the new study said they observed “baseline levels of marine omega-3 fatty acids were associated with decelerated telomere attrition over 5 years.”

Additionally, Dr. Farzaneh-Far said, “in multiple studies, short telomere length [in white blood cells] has been shown to predict death and cardiovascular events and heart failure.” He cautioned that “it’s an open question as to whether telomere length is causal or just a marker” of cell death. But he referred to telomere shortening as “a key part of cellular aging.”

“To definitively address the question of whether omega-3 fatty acids inhibit cellular aging, a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial would be necessary,” the authors wrote. Dr. Farzaneh-Far suggested that such research should be done in healthy adults because the evidence already is powerful on behalf of advantages of these fatty acids in heart patients.

Write to Thomas M. Burton at tom.burton@wsj.com

DNAWellnessinfo.com Resource:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703837004575013393566949312.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

Checking Nutrition Labels Might Not Mean Much

3:09 PM EST, Mon, Dec 28, 2009 – nbcnewyork.com

High school students analyzing food products found in their own kitchens discovered that one-sixth had been mislabeled, according to a DNA study released Monday.

Out of 66 foods tested by Trinity School seniors Brenda Tan and Matthew Cost, 11 had labels listing ingredients that had been replaced, usually with cheaper or less desirable options.

The pair found that a specialty “sheep’s milk” cheese was actually made with cow’s milk, and caviar labeled as “sturgeon” was actually Mississippi paddlefish. Similarly, “venison” dog treats turned out to be made from beef, and a delicacy labeled “dried shark” was actually an inexpensive freshwater fish from Africa, Nile perch.

The results suggest the foods may be deliberately mislabeled for financial gain, the students said, although they did not release the exact products or retailers involved.

The “DNAHouse” study comes a year after another pair of Trinity students found that one-fourth of fish samples they collected around New York were incorrectly labeled as higher-priced fish.

In this year’s study, the students — aided by experts at the Rockefeller University and the American Museum of Natural History — tracked the genetic material from 151 DNA samples taken from their everyday surroundings. The samples were from 95 species, including a Jumbo flying squid and an Oriental latrine fly.

After gathering the samples, the students sent them off to the museum for DNA barcoding analysis. The museum reported back with a sequence taken from a standard “barcode” region of the DNA. The students pasted the sequence into an online search engine to find out what species the DNA came from.

DNAWellnessinfo.com Resource:  http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/HS-Students-Find–80213737.html

Dark chocolate may protect DNA from damage: Study

By Stephen Daniells, 04-Dec-2009

Consumption of polyphenol-rich dark chocolate may protect DNA from oxidative damage, preventing artery hardening and heart disease, says a new study.

Zinc and DNA Integrity

12/2/2009 9:44:00 AM naturalproductsinsider.com

Results from a recent study suggest interactions among zinc deficiency, DNA integrity, oxidative stress and DNA repair and suggested a role for zinc in maintaining DNA integrity (J Nutr. 2009;139(9):1626-31). Sprague-Dawley rats were fed zinc-adequate (ZA; 30 mg Zn/kg) or severely zinc-deficient (ZD; less than 1 mg Zn/kg) diets or were pair-fed zinc-adequate diet to match the mean feed intake of ZD rats for three weeks. After zinc depletion, rats were repleted with a ZA diet for 10 days. In addition, zinc-adequate (MZA 30 mg Zn/kg) or marginally zinc-deficient (MZD; 6 mg Zn/kg) diets were given to different groups of rats for six weeks. Severe zinc depletion caused more DNA damage in peripheral blood cells than in the ZA group and this was normalized by zinc repletion. Researchers also detected impairments in DNA repair, such as compromised p53 DNA binding and differential activation of the base excision repair proteins 8-oxoguanine glycosylase and poly ADP ribose polymerase. MZD rats also had more DNA damage and higher plasma F(2)-isoprostane concentrations than MZA rats and had impairments in DNA repair functions. However, plasma antioxidant concentrations and erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were not affected by zinc depletion.

DNAWellnessinfo.com Resource:  http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/news/2009/12/zinc-and-dna-integrity.aspx

DNA Guided Nutrition:  http://www.dnaguidedwellnessproducts.com

Blame Your DNA?

Study: Genes may detemine if you’re a fitness fanatic or a couch potato.

Christie Aschwanden Special to Tribune Newspapers

September 29, 2009

For decades, fitness gurus have admonished sofa spuds to adopt a can-do attitude toward exercise, as if the only thing keeping them from the gym or walking path was the right attitude.

Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that it’s not merely motivation but also genetics that separate slouches from fitness fanatics, and at least some of these genes appear to act on the brain’s pleasure and reward center.

Though the science doesn’t imply that people disinclined to exercise can’t get moving, it helps explain why some people find it more difficult than others to “just do it.”

“We all know people who can’t sit still and we all know people who can’t get off the couch,” says J. Timothy Lightfoot, an exercise physiologist at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.

Studies of twins suggest that some of the differences between these types of people come down to genetics. A 2006 Swedish investigation looked at leisure-time physical activity in 5,334 identical and 8,028 fraternal twins. The findings revealed that the exercise habits of identical twins were twice as closely matched as those of fraternal twins.

Fraternal twins share half their genes on average, whereas identical twins are genetic duplicates, so the finding implies that genes account for much of the variability in physical activity levels between people.

Likewise, a 2006 study that pooled data on exercise participation in more than 37,000 twin pairs from seven European countries calculated the genetic influence on physical activity at somewhere between 48% and 71%.

And these are not isolated findings.

“We now have more than 20 twin studies showing almost unanimously that [identical] twins are more alike in their physical activity than [fraternal] twins,” says geneticist Claude Bouchard, executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. The studies make a compelling case that the inclination to exercise runs in families, he says.

Studying mice

In an effort to find the genes involved, physiologist Theodore Garland at UC Riverside turned to rodents. He placed exercise wheels in the cages of ordinary mice and measured how often they scurried around in the wheels.

“This was voluntary exercise,” Garland says. “It’s sort of like how some people jog and others don’t.”

Researchers then selected the mice who ran the most and bred them with other so-called “high-runners” and repeated the experiment for more than 50 generations.

The result was a strain of high-runner mice that run as many as eight hours per night.

Garland’s next step was to find out what caused the mice to want to run. He found clues in the brain.

In a study published in 2003, his group showed that high-runner mice and regular mice respond differently to stimulants such as cocaine and Ritalin. Regular mice would run more when plied with the stimulants. “But we’ve never found a drug that will increase running in high-running mice,” he says. Whatever those drugs do in the brain seemed to be already turned on in the high-runner mice.

Because cocaine and Ritalin alter levels of the brain chemical dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in pleasure and reward, the drugs’ different effects on the two breeds suggest high-runner and regular mice may process dopamine differently in the brain — and that may dictate how much pleasure they get out of running.

Other studies have also linked physical activity to dopamine.

For instance, a 1998 study showed that mice deficient in a receptor involved in processing dopamine, the D2 receptor, are less active than those with normal D2 receptor levels.

More recently, Lightfoot and his colleague Amy Knab found that two other dopamine-related genes were less active in their high-runner mice.

Says Knab, who is an exercise physiologist at Appalachian State University, “There’s something inherently different in the dopamine systems of the high-runners versus low-runners.”

Human studies have also linked exercise frequency to dopamine. Bouchard’s research team studied physical activity levels in a sample of 721 volunteers from 161 families in Quebec, Canada. They found that variations in the dopamine D2 receptor gene correlated to physical activity levels in women, but not men.

It’s a start

Bouchard says the study is an intriguing start — but he speculates that there are many more genes that influence exercise inclination.

Environment still plays a major role in how much someone exercises, though. “You can’t blame being lazy on your genes,” Knab says.

In fact, a twins study published last year suggests that environment trumps genetics when it comes to the kind of exercise needed for good health.

When University of Washington exercise physiologist Glen Duncan and his colleagues examined data from the university’s twin registry they found that genetics did predict the propensity to exercise up to 60 minutes per week.

But at 150 minutes or more — the amount of exercise that public health officials recommend — “the genetic component went away and the environment was the bigger factor,” Duncan says. For example, if people walk into a building and see a set of stairs first thing, they will probably take them. But if there’s an escalator front and center, they’ll take that instead, he says.

Researchers are now trying to tease out the ways that genes and the environment combine to turn one person into a marathon runner and another into a couch potato. By doing so, they may discover more effective ways to encourage exercise among those not naturally inclined.

“It’s really hard to change people’s physical activity levels,” physiologist Joey Eisenmann at Michigan State University says.

“There are a lot of people working on interventions to increase physical activity, and for the most part they haven’t been shown to be highly effective. As we learn more about genetic factors, that may shed light on why these programs don’t work as well as we’d like.”

Some of this research may eventually lead to more individualized approaches to fitness.

Or — failing that — researchers may even learn to enhance exercise’s gratifying effects with drugs.

“Some day,” Garland says, “we could be giving people pills to make it more pleasurable to run.”

DNAWellnessinfo.com Resource:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/sns-health-blame-your-dna,0,3243673.story?page=1

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Summer DNA Camps

By: AnneHart

Bad Eating Habits Can Alter Your DNA

By Margaret Furtado, M.S., R.D. – Posted Fri, Aug 07, 2009, 4:30 am PDT

Role of genes in weight management

weightlossnutrition.com

Science is constantly trying to get behind the main factors for the obesity epidemic. From our hurried, fast food lifestyle to our laziness and penchant for T.V. watching rather than exercise, it seems relatively clear that, in most cases, the obesity epidemic is a result of our lifestyle choices. But for some, their genetics play a role that may be hard to fight against.

Family reunions let everyone in the family come together and see the role that genetics has played in their life; maybe you have Aunt Bertha’s red hair or Cousin Vinny’s brown eyes. Unfortunately, you can also inherit Uncle Roger’s pot belly and Grandpa Joe’s wide tush. This is because genetics plays a role in your fat cells and where they are stored.

Because of your DNA, you have a genetic predisposition to carry fat cells in the same areas as your family. Since families blend the DNA of many different people, you may take after one side of your family more than another. This could mean that you and your brother have the genetic predisposition to having love handles while your older sister doesn’t.

In addition to your propensity to carry fat in certain places, you’ll find that your body’s response to exercise mimics others in your family as well. If you have the right genes, you may find that you build muscle very quickly when weight training or, if you’re on the unfortunate end, you don’t.

But, what is the role of genes in weight management? Can you manipulate your genes to work for you rather than against you? For some with genetically linked health issues like thyroid problems, medications can be a solution. Medications can help your body run as it should and can pick up the slack for any glands that are impaired due to genetic lineage.

For most people, medication is not the answer. Instead, learning how your body responds to food and exercise if key to fighting your genes and managing your weight. If your family is filled with overweight people, and you see the signs in your own body that this is probably your destiny too, follow these steps to head genetics off at the pass.

1. Eat right. Cut out sugars, simple carbohydrates (like white rice and white bread), and stay away from fast food. For some, learned eating habits play a bigger role in weight gain than genetics. Be sure to reevaluate the food lessons you’ve learned from your family and try to make the right decisions regarding what goes in your mouth.
2. Exercise regularly. Ideally, you should exercise for one hour a day, five to six days per week. Unfortunately, real life often gets in the way of this. If you can exercise four times per week for one half hour per work out, you’ll find you can stave off the effects of genetics.
3. Stick with it. Fighting your genes is not easy and you may find that you have to work harder than others to receive fewer results. Just remember the alternative facing you and stick with it.

Before embarking on any new physical fitness routine or new and improved eating plan, you should consult a physician. In addition to letting you know if the routine you want to try is healthy for you, they may have some other helpful tips to give you. Speaking with a nutritionist about your eating plan will also help you get ideas for variety and make sure that you haven’t included any foods that will hurt your weight management goals rather than help them.

DNAWellnessinfo.com Resource:  http://www.weightlossnutrition.org/genes-weight-management/

DNA Guided Nutrition Breakthrough:  http://www.dnaguidedwellnessproducts.com