Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Certain Supplements you Eat will change your Genes For Life!

IT SOUNDS like science fiction: simply swallowing a pill, or eating a specific food supplement, could permanently change your behaviour for the better, or (worse?)or reverse diseases such as Schizophrenia, Huntington's or cancer.
In the latest development, normal rats have been made to behave differently just by injecting them with a specific amino acid. The change to their behaviour was permanent.
Methionine, for instance, is widely available in capsule form, from your Health Food Store. The supplement is used to make healthy rats stressed, its molecules are small enough to get into the brain via the bloodstream. There's no need to inject the supplement into (peoples) brains.

***Thoughts
"Note that Methionine makes RATS STRESSED permanently.....and you can BUY it in your
local Health Food Store???? Woaaah back. Lets read the complete article"

.....continuation of article...
Though the experiment IMPAIRED well-adjusted animals, the OPPOSITE should be possible, and Szyf has already shown that a chemical called TSA that is designed to strip away methyl groups can turn a BADLY raised rat into a MORE NORMAL one!!

***Thoughts
"This article is dynamite.....Read the complete article now"

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18825264.800.html

You are correct. The article is explosive in its implications.

I'm not surprised by the fact that a small molecule can alter the brain. That it does so long after it has been metabolized is quite another matter.