A new study from Northwestern University shows the drastically different health effects of vitamin E depending on its form. The study authors say a vitamin E variant known as gamma-tocopherol – found in soybean, corn, and canola oils – was found to be associated with decreased lung function in humans. The researchers speculate that the […]
Shorter men live longer, according to new research that shows shorter men were more likely to have a protective form of the longevity gene, FOXO3, leading to smaller body size during early development, lower blood insulin levels, and less cancer. “We split people into two groups – those that were 5-foot-2 and shorter, and 5-4 […]
Babies whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy to stressors such as trauma, illness, alcohol, or drug abuse become susceptible to various psychiatric disorders later in life. Now, researchers think that it may be the stressor’s effect on single gene that gives rise to conditions such as schizophrenia, PTSD, autism, and bipolar disorders. The Yale University […]
DNA can already tell us the sex and ancestry of unknown individuals, but now an international team of researchers is beginning to connect genetics with facial features, degrees of femininity, and racial characteristics. Writing about their work in PLOS Genetics, the researchers detail how by jointly modeling sex, genomic ancestry, and genotype, the independent effects […]
Florida State University scientists investigating neurobehavioral disorders say that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could be an environmentally induced health condition inherited from a grandmother who smoked during pregnancy. ADHD affects about 10 percent of children and 5 percent of adults in the United States. Health experts have struggled to produce a definitive scientific explanation […]
New research looking at the biological processes involved in breast cancer development has strengthened the argument for a potential link between alcohol consumption and progression of the disease. The findings, published in Breast Cancer Research, offer a possible way to improve outcomes for patients in the later stages of the disease. Conducted by scientists from […]
Genes have been implicated in influencing everything from our sexual orientation to our risk of cancer, but a new paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interfaceasserts that the prominent emphasis currently given to the gene (a string of bases on the DNA molecule) in biology is based on a flawed interpretation of […]
Today, obesity is considered to be undesirable, but in the past getting more fat and more energy from the diet might have been important to survival in cold places. This, according to a new study in the journalBiology Letters, might explain the dramatic differences in gut bacteria observed in people from different latitudes. Researchers at […]
For many sufferers, the standard treatment regime for chlamydia fails to eradicate the disease, and researchers think the culprit may be the gastrointestinal tract. Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common cause of sexually transmitted disease in the world. In the U.S., 7 percent of sexually active females aged between 14 and 19 become infected annually. […]
Researchers have long known that young brains are malleable enough to re-wire the circuits that process sensory information. For example, a young child who is blind develops a much keener sense of hearing. Now, researchers have overturned conventional wisdom, showing that adult brains can alsobe re-wired. The findings, published in the journal Neuron, may lead […]
