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

Melon research sweetened with DNA sequence

Sat, 06/27/2009 – 15:20 – NLN

machineslikeus.com

People smell them, thump them and eyeball their shape. But ultimately, it’s sweetness and a sense of healthy eating that lands a melon in a shopper’s cart.

Plant breeders now have a better chance to pinpoint such traits for new varieties, because the melon genome with hundreds of DNA markers has been mapped by scientists with Texas AgriLife Research. That means tastier and healthier melons are likely for future summer picnics.

Colored melon flesh are full of nutrients. Plant breeders may develop even better varieties now that melon genome with hundreds of DNA markers has been mapped. Credit: Texas AgriLife Photo by Kathleen Phillips.

10 guilt-free foods you can add to your diet

KGO-TV – San Francisco,CA,USA

Friday, June 05, 2009

Affordably delicious and surprisingly healthful: 10 foods you can add back to your diet without guilt! Amy Albert, senior associate editor of Bon Appetit Magazine, shares her finds.

Every month, Bon Appétit features a column called “Health Wise,” where we offer a guide to eating healthfully while still enjoying your food. It’s designed to help our readers make sense of nutritional information that can sometimes be hard to decipher.

1. BACON

· Jennifer McLagan, author of Fat, tells us that 45% of the fat in bacon is monosaturated – which is a good-for-you-fat that can actually help lower bad cholesterol levels.

· This fat is the same fat found in olive oil (called oleic acid) – so our argument is that bacon is about half as good for you as olive oil and twice as delicious!

· Of course, it’s not a free ride – moderation is key and you should seek out artisanal varieties without preservatives.

· Also remember that when cooking with bacon, a little goes a long way – sometimes you just need one slice to spice up a pot of soup. Or use it as a yummy garnish for fish or sautéed greens.

2. WHOLE MILK

· Whole milk can be good for you – the saturated milk fats you find in whole milk may help us absorb calcium better, and contains big helpings of vitamins A and D. In fact, milk producers are required by the government to fortify low-fat and skim milk with synthetic vitamins that are found naturally in whole milk.

· Other studies have found that low-fat diets can actually be counterproductive to weight loss – so having some fat from whole milk can be good for you. In a Swedish study, researchers found that women who ate one serving of whole milk or cheese a day put on less weight than women who ate these foods less often. · Another study suggested that one or more servings of whole milk a day may even enhance a woman’s fertility

3. PINE NUTS

· You find about 11 grams of protein in about one half cup of pine nuts.

· They are also loaded with cancer-fighting antioxidants and pinolenic acid, a natural appetite suppressant – which will help you eat less.

· And if you are worried about fat in nuts, a 2003 study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found little evidence that eating nuts causes weight gain; some evidence actually pointed to weight maintenance.

· Here’s how you can use them in your cooking: Pine nuts are a terrifically easy way to add a little flavor, richness, and texture to everything from last-minute salads to weeknight pastas

4. DUCK BREAST

· Although duck has a decadent reputation, this doesn’t make it a bad thing to cook at home every once and a while.

· It has a thick layer of fat under the skin – but duck fat is considered to be among the healthiest of animal fast. With 63% unsaturated fat, it beats out beef and is right up there with chicken. And it is absolutely delicious! So you shouldn’t be afraid to splurge on duck breast every now and then.

· A great way to cook it: Score the skin and sauté it skin side down to render out much of the fat, and sprinkle with sea salt.

· We also have a great recipe for Seared Duck Breast in the June issue

5. WATERCRESS

· All greens are good for you, but watercress is especially healthful.

· A 2007 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that watercress has a high enough antioxidant count to make a measurable difference in reducing DNA damage to our white blood cells (a precursor to many forms of cancer).

· Eating watercress has also been found to consistently lower elevated blood triglyceride levels, a risk factor for heart disease.

· Watercress tossed with a Dijon vinaigrette is a perfect accompaniment to a grilled grass-fed skirt steak (or even duck breast!).

6. CANNELLINI BEANS

· These are a pantry staple – and are budget-friendly, versatile, and incredible good for you.

· Beans have cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber, potassium and magnesium that can help regulate blood pressure.

· Plus, their complex carbs and protein help keep you feeling full (so you aren’t temped to snack 30 mins after dinner).

· All beans are good for you, but cannellinis are especially great – they are building blocks for delicious soups, salads, sides and appetizers.

· The best place to buy beans is somewhere that moves them in large quantities so you know they haven’t been sitting around.

7. LEEKS

· Did you know that one medium-sized leek can contain more fiber than a bran muffin? Leeks are an incredible source of dietary fiber.

· They also have tons of folic acid, iron, potassium, vitamin C, and cancer-fighting antioxidants.

· They are incredible versatile to cook with as well – use them in potato-leek soup, try them in place of celery in stock and stew recipes, or slow-braise them for a great side dish for roasted meats.

8. ANCHOVIES

· Small, oily fish from cold northern seas – like anchovies – contain a high concentration of omega-3s with a minimum of mercury.

· These omega-3 fatty acids have been recommended by doctors for protection against everything from heart disease to depression.

· Anchovies have just as much omega-3 as salmon and nearly twice as much as halibut.

· Although the serving sizes aren’t the same, anchovies can add incredible depth of flavor to a wide variety of dishes – from pastas to salads to homemade mayonnaise.

· So you can easily get some omega-3′s in surprising and delicious ways.

9. FRESH STRAWBERRIES

· When it comes to healthful eating, scientists have discovered that color is key.

· Brightly colored fruits and vegetables (like strawberries) contain the highest levels of phytonutrients – powerful disease-fighting compounds.

· A study conducted at the University of Illinois found that strawberries may fight inflammation, cancer-causing compounds, and may even be capable of suppressing the progression of tumors

10. BUCKWHEAT

· Most people think that buckwheat is a grain, but it is actually an herb that’s related to rhubarb and sorrel.

· It contains all the essential amino acids, B vitamins, phosphorus, magnesium, iron zinc, copper and manganese, and a fatty acid critical to good health.

· It has 4.5 grams of dietary fiber in every cup – so it’s up there in nutrition with granola.

· You can eat buckwheat in soba noodles, French-style crepes, or use buckwheat flour to make pancakes.

· Because it’s high-protein, you will be getting a low-glycemic index meal that won’t leave you hungry an hour later.

Visit bonappetit.com for tons of recipes that use all of these ingredients.

DNAWellnessinfo.com Resource:  http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/food_wine&id=6850949

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

Can taking a multivitamin extend life?

Los Angeles Times – Health

3:22 PM, May 29, 2009

Helmsley grant launches Salk Center for Nutritional Genetics

DNA Guided Nutrition is here!

DNA guided nutrition has finally arrived – check it out.

Lab creates an all-it-can-eat mouse

Imagine you’ve bellied up to the all-you-can-eat pasta bar in Berkeley, only to meet one of the mice from Hei Sook Sul’s Nutritional Science and Toxicology Lab.

If you come here often, you know that loading up on carbohydrates is going to make you pretty chubby. But you notice that your fellow diner — the mouse — is pretty slim. How does he do it?

DNA Weight Control

Not only were mice whose DNA-PK gene had been knocked out 40% leaner than normal mice when all were fed a high-carb, low-fat diet; they also had better blood-lipid profiles, suggesting they’d be at lower risk of developing heart disease.

Sul said no one at this point was thinking about gene therapy as a treatment for obesity. Instead, drug developers might look at how the DNA-PK gene calls out other actors to set in motion the conversion of excess calories to fat and find an agent that might disrupt the process.

If they’re successful, you’ll be able to join that mouse at the pasta bar and look just as svelte as he does.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

DNA Wellness Resource:  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-carbs21-2009mar21,0,6500843.story

DNA Nutritional Breakthrough:  http://www.dnaguidedwellnessproducts.com

Triple Helix: Designing a New Molecule of Life

From the December 2008 Scientific American Magazine

Peptide nucleic acid, a synthetic hybrid of protein and DNA, could form the basis of a new class of drugs—and of artificial life unlike anything found in nature

By Peter E. Nielsen

Key Concepts

• A synthetic molecule called peptide nucleic acid (PNA) combines the information-storage properties of DNA with the chemical stability of a proteinlike backbone.
• Drugs based on PNA would achieve therapeutic effects by binding to specific base sequences of DNA or RNA, repressing or promoting the corresponding gene.
• Some researchers working to construct artificial life-forms out of mixtures of chemicals are also considering PNA as a useful ingredient for their designs.
• PNA-like molecules may have served as primordial genetic material at the origin of life.

For all the magnificent diversity of life on this planet, ranging from tiny bacteria to majestic blue whales, from sunshine-harv­­est­­ing plants to mineral-digesting endoliths miles underground, only one kind of “life as we know it” exists. All these organisms are based on nucleic acids—DNA and RNA—and proteins, working together more or less as described by the so-called central dogma of molecular biology: DNA stores information that is transcribed into RNA, which then serves as a template for producing a protein. The proteins, in turn, serve as important structural elements in tissues and, as enzymes, are the cell’s workhorses.

Yet scientists dream of synthesizing life that is utterly alien to this world—both to better understand the minimum components required for life (as part of the quest to uncover the essence of life and how life originated on earth) and, frankly, to see if they can do it. That is, they hope to put together a novel combination of molecules that can self-organize, metabolize (make use of an energy source), grow, reproduce and evolve.

A molecule that some researchers study in pursuit of this vision is peptide nucleic acid (PNA), which mimics the information-storing features of DNA and RNA but is built on a proteinlike backbone that is simpler and sturdier than their sugar-phosphate backbones. My group developed PNA more than 15 years ago in the course of a project with a rather more immediately useful goal than the creation of unprecedented life-forms. We sought to design drugs that would work by acting on the DNA composing specific genes, to either block or enhance the gene’s expression (the production of the protein it encodes). Such drugs would be conceptually similar to “antisense” compounds, such as short DNA or RNA strands that bind to a specific RNA sequence to interfere with the production of disease-related proteins [see “Hitting the Genetic Off Switch,” by Gary Stix; Scientific American, October 2004].

PNA’s unique properties potentially give it several advantages over antisense DNAs and RNAs, including more versatility in binding to DNA as well as RNA, stronger binding to its target and greater chemical stability in the enzyme-laden cellular environment. Many studies have demonstrated PNA’s suitability for modifying gene expression, mostly in molecular test-tube experiments and in cell cultures. Studies in animals have begun, as has research on ways to transform PNA into drugs that can readily enter a person’s cells from the bloodstream.

In addition to fomenting exciting medical research, these amazing molecules have inspired speculations relating to the origin of life on earth. Some scientists have suggested that PNAs or a very similar molecule may have formed the basis of an early kind of life at a time before proteins, DNA and RNA had evolved. Perhaps rather than creating novel life, artificial-life researchers will be re-creating our earliest ancestors.

Into the Groove
The story of PNA’s discovery begins in the early 1990s. To generate drugs with broader capabilities than antisense RNA, my colleagues Michael Egholm, Rolf H. Berg, and Ole Buchardt and I wanted to develop small molecules able to recognize double-stranded, or duplex, DNA having specific sequences of bases—no easy task. The difficulty has to do with the structure of the familiar DNA double helix.

It is the bases—thymine (T), adenine (A), cytosine (C) and guanine (G)—that store information in DNA. (In RNA, thymine is replaced by the very similar molecule uracil, or U.) Pairs of these bases joined by hydrogen bonds form the “rungs” of the familiar DNA “ladder.” C binds with G, and A binds with T, in what is called Watson-Crick base-pairing. A compound that binds with a stretch of double-helical DNA having a characteristic base sequence would therefore be one that acts on any gene containing that particular sequence of bases on one of its strands.

DNAWellnessInfo.com Resource:  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=triple-helix-designing-a-new-molecule&ec=su_triplehelix

Customized vitamins a fix for genetic flaws?

(06-05) 20:01 PDT — UC Berkeley scientists are exploring whether high-speed gene-reading machines – like those used to decode the human genome – will be able to find subtle genetic flaws that can harm health and can be cured by treatments as simple as vitamins.

Personal genomes may lead to personalized vitamin supplements

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 02 June 2008

BERKELEY – As the cost of sequencing a single human genome drops rapidly, with one company predicting a price of $100 per person in five years, soon the only reason not to look at your “personal genome” will be fear of what bad news lies in your genes.

University of California, Berkeley, scientists, however, have found a welcome reason to delve into your genetic heritage: to find the slight genetic flaws that can be fixed with remedies as simple as vitamin or mineral supplements.

“I’m looking for the good news in the human genome,” said Jasper Rine, UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology.

“Headlines for the last 20 years have really been about the triumph of biomedical research in finding disease genes, which is biologically interesting, genetically important and frightening to people who get this information,” Rine said. “I became obsessed with trying to decide if there is some other class of information that will make people want to look at their genome sequence.”

What Rine and colleagues found and report this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) is that there are many genetic differences that make people’s enzymes less efficient than normal, and that simple supplementation with vitamins can often restore some of these deficient enzymes to full working order.

First author Nicholas Marini, a UC Berkeley research scientist, noted that physicians prescribe vitamins to “cure” many rare and potentially fatal metabolic defects caused by mutations in critical enzymes. But those affected by these metabolic diseases are people with two bad copies, or alleles, of an essential enzyme. Many others may be walking around with only one bad gene, or two copies of slightly defective genes, throwing their enzyme levels off slightly and causing subtle effects that also could be eliminated with vitamin supplements.

“Our studies have convinced us that there is a lot of variation in the population in these enzymes, and a lot of it affects function, and a lot of it is responsive to vitamins,” Marini said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if everybody is going to require a different optimal dose of vitamins based on their genetic makeup, based upon the kind of variance they are harboring in vitamin-dependent enzymes.”

Though this initial study tested the function of human gene variants by transplanting them into yeast cells, where the function of the variants can be accurately assessed, Rine and Marini are confident the results will hold up in humans. Their research, partially supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army, may enable them to employ U.S. soldiers to test the theory that vitamin supplementation can tune up defective enzymes.

“Our soldiers, like top athletes, operate under extreme conditions that may well be limited by their physiology,” Rine said. “We’re now working with the defense department to identify variants of enzymes that are remediable, and ultimately hope to identify troops that have these variants and test whether performance can be enhanced by appropriate supplementation.”

In the PNAS paper, Rine, Marini and their colleagues report on their initial analysis of variants of a human enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, or MTHFR. The enzyme, which requires the B vitamin folate to work properly, plays a key role in synthesizing molecules that go into the nucleotide building blocks of DNA. Some cancer drugs, such as methotrexate, target MTHFR to shut down DNA synthesis and prevent tumor growth.

Using DNA samples from 564 individuals of many races and ethnicities, colleagues at Applied Biosystems of Foster City, Calif., sequenced for each person the two alleles that code for the MTHFR enzyme. Consistent with earlier studies, they found three common variants of the enzyme, but also 11 uncommon variants, each of the latter accounting for less than one percent of the sample.

They then synthesized the gene for each variant of the enzyme, and Marini, Rine and their UC Berkeley colleagues inserted these genes into separate yeast cells in order to judge the activity of each variant. Yeast use many of the same enzymes and cofactor vitamins and minerals as humans and are an excellent model for human metabolism, Rine said.

The researchers found that four different mutations affected the functioning of the human enzyme in yeast. One of these mutations is well known: Nearly 30 percent of the population has one copy, and nine percent has two copies.

The researchers were able to supplement the diet of the cultured yeast with folate, however, and restore full functionality to the most common variant, and to all but one of the less common variants.

Since this experiment, the researchers have found 30 other variants of the MTHFR enzyme and tested about 15 of them, “and more than half interfere with the function of the enzyme, producing a hundred-fold range of enzyme activity. The majority of these can be either partially or completely restored to normal activity by adding more folate. And that is a surprise,” Rine said.

Most scientists think that harmful mutations are disfavored by evolution, but Rine pointed out that this applies only to mutations that affect reproductive fitness. Mutations that affect our health in later years are not efficiently removed by evolution and may remain in our genome forever.

The health effects of tuning up this enzyme in humans are unclear, he said, but folate is already known to protect against birth defects and seems to protect against heart disease and cancer. At least one defect in the MTHFR enzyme produces elevated levels in the blood of the metabolite homocysteine, which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, conditions that typically affect people in their post-reproductive years.

“In those people, supplementation of folate in the diet can reduce levels of that metabolite and reduce disease risk,” Marini said.

Marini and Rine estimate that the average person has five rare mutant enzymes, and perhaps other not-so-rare variants, that could be improved with vitamin or mineral supplements.

“There are over 600 human enzymes that use vitamins or minerals as cofactors, and this study reports just what we found by studying one of them,” Rine said. “What this means is that, even if the odds of an individual having a defect in one gene is low, with 600 genes, we are all likely to have some mutations that limit one or more of our enzymes.”

The subtle effects of variation in enzyme activity may well account for conflicting results of some clinical trials, including the confusing data on the effect of vitamin supplements, he noted. In the future, the enzyme profile of research subjects will have to be taken into account in analyzing the outcome of clinical trials.

If one considers not just vitamin-dependent enzymes but all the 30,000 human proteins in the genome, “every individual would harbor approximately 250 deleterious substitutions considering only the low-frequency variants. These numbers suggest that the aggregate incidence of low-frequency variants could have a significant physiological impact,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

All the more reason to poke around in one’s genome, Rine said.

“If you don’t give people a reason to become interested in their genome and to become comfortable with their personal genomic information, then the benefits of much of the biomedical research, which is indexed to particular genetic states, won’t be embraced in a time frame that most people can benefit from,” Rine said. “So, my motivation is partly scientific, partly an education project and, in some ways, a partly political project.”

Marini and Rine credit Bruce Ames, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology now on the research staff at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, with the research that motivated them to look at enzyme variation. Ames found in the 1970s that many bacteria that could not produce a specific amino acid could do so if given more vitamin B6, and in recent years he has continued exploring the link between micronutrients and health.

“Looked at in one way, Bruce found that you can cure a genetic disease in bacteria by treating it with vitamins,” Rine said. Because the human genome contains about 6 billion DNA base pairs, each one subject to mutation, there could be between 3 and 6 million DNA sequence differences between any two people. Given those numbers, he reasoned that, as in bacteria, “there should be people who are genetically different in terms of the amount of vitamin needed for optimal performance of their enzymes.”

This touches on what Rine considers one of the key biomedical questions today. “Now that we have the complete genome sequences of all the common model organisms, including humans, it’s obvious that the defining challenge of biology in the 21st century is not what the genes are, but what the variation in the genes does,” he said.

Rine, Marini and their colleagues are continuing to study variation in the human MTHFR gene as well as other folate utilizing enzymes, particularly with respect to how defects in these enzymes may lead to birth defects. Rine also is taking advantage of the 1,500 students in his Biology 1A lab course to investigate variants of a second vitamin B6-dependent enzyme, cystathionine beta-synthase.

He also is investigating how enzyme cofactors like vitamins and minerals fix defective enzymes. He suspects that supplements work by acting as chaperones to stabilize the proper folding of the enzyme, which is critical to its catalytic activity. “That is a new principle that may be applicable to drug design,” Rine said.

Coauthors with Rine and Marini are UC Berkeley research assistant Jennifer Gin and Janet Ziegle, Kathryn Hunkapiller Keho, David Ginzinger and Dennis A. Gilbert of Applied Biosystems, which also funded part of the study. The work was supported by a University of California Discovery Grant, DARPA and the National Institutes of Health.

For further information, link to:

PNAS paper by Marini, et al

Rine lab Web site

DNA News Resource:  http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/02_genomes.shtml

DNA Nutritional Resource:  http://www.dnaguidedwellnessproducts.com