Punnett's Square

In this article, explored by Jessica Bartfield, MD, medical weight-loss specialist at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital concludes, Americans might be fond of their drinks “sickeningly sweet” but a new tagging scheme may dishearten a lot of us American public from hammering on the needless calories. therefore, Unaware to those people who are gladly consuming their beloved cola or fruit drink where most beverages container hold multiple servings, and the majority Americans neglect to do the math on the total calorie calculation. Its discovered that “The average American consumes 22.5 teaspoons of added sugar daily, half of which comes from regular soda and fruit drinks, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2004), 10 percent of overweight adults consume 450 calories of sugar sweetened beverages per day, which is three times that of an average American. Cutting 450 calories per day would lead to about a 1 pound per week weight loss, close to 50 pounds in one year and reduction in sugar-sweetened beverages had a significant effect on weight change at 6 months and 18 months, even more of an impact than solid- calorie reduction”.

In this article, American Heart Association reports that America is winning a battle against heart disease and stroke mortality, but is still losing the war. From 1997 to 2007, the heart diseases have declined by 27.8 percent, and stroke death rate has fell by 44.8 percent. However, the number of patients treating for cardiovascular operations and procedures has increased by 27 percent. The heart disease and stroke remain among the leading killers of Americans. Even decline in death for both heart disease and stroke patients, Véronique L Roger, believes that we need to still provide superior care and treatment so that heart disease and stroke patients can live longer. American Heart Association statistics show that more than 67 percent of adult are overweight and that 33.5 percent of adults 20 years and older have high blood pressure and of that 80 percent are aware of their condition and less than half have it under control. The new 2020 Impact Goal has been put in place to track the results. The goal is to improve health and reduce the risk of disease and having a stroke. Mr. Roger believes that we can accomplish this by closely monitoring your diet and weight and increasing physical activities and other related to health. The new statistical update mentions that genetic factors play a big role in cardiovascular disease. I found this interesting because nowadays more and more people are going to hospital due to heart diseases. It is interesting to know that this goal is put in place to improve people’s health condition.

In this article, it talks about the importance of Vitamin D. Vitamin D can be influenced by genetics, skin color, and sun exposure. It can be made in body from Sunlight or added by fortification in food. Reports of greater than expected vitamin D insufficiency coupled with emerging evidence that higher circulating concentrations of this nutrient may protect against cardiovascular disease have prompted a renewed interest in teasing out how environment, genetics, and behavior work independently and coordinately to influence vitamin D status.
To better understand and explain this, researchers from Emory University studied vitamin D status in twins living in different North American locations. Shelley McGuire, spokesperson for American Society for Nutrition mentions that vitamin is much more important than keeping the bones strong. It can help us protect against diseases such as heart disease and cancer and can helps us keep our body healthy. The result of Karohl study says that in winter vitamin D status is affected by the genetic differences and during summer time the vitamin D is mostly affected by non-genetic factors such as lifestyle choices and sun exposure. This article is interesting because it provides very useful information. I was not aware that Vitamin D in winter was affected by genetic differences. It also gives useful information for further studies.

In this article, researchers from a group of 44 universities and research institutions in the United States have identified four new genes that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Each gene has its own effects and can lead to loss of brain function. This discovery offers new approach of causes of Alzheimer’s disease. Director of Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Dr. David Bennett, says that these findings can help us to better understand the causes of Alzheimer’s disease and believes that it can lead to treatment and prevention of it. All the consortia analyzed over 54,000 peoples. Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium conducted genetic analysis, Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center contributed valuable clinical and genomic data and the rests confirmed the data from additional peoples. The four genes that were confirmed were MS4A, CD2AP, CD33, and EPHA1. With discovery of these genes it will help to find the causes of the disease and will led to discovery of drug that could prevent it. This article is interesting to me because discovery of these four new genes can help us prevent the Alzheimer’s disease and can help us lead to drug that could treat this disease.

In this article, it is reported that people have higher chance of having a heart attack than having a stroke. The result of the study proves that we need two separate distinct models for risk assessment of the two conditions. Peter Rothwell, professor of clinical neurology at Oxford University, found that there your parents and you have higher chance of having heart than having a stroke. A second analysis, which included patient’s sibling as well as parents, showed same result. This proved that family history seemed to be a stronger predictor for heart attack than for stroke. Oxford Vascular Study began in 2002, in which more than 91,000 people were served by one hospital in Oxfordshire County. This study was conducted by Rothwell and his colleagues to “clarify and confirm evidence suggesting a great difference in genetic predisposition between heart attacks and strokes.”We had found previously that much of the heritability of stroke is related to the genetics of high blood pressure, which doesn’t seem to be the case for heart attack,” Rothwell said. Hypertension appears to be closely related with stroke rather than heart attack, which is why a family history of hypertension is related to a higher risk of stroke. The findings of the study hold two significant implications. First there needs to be a change in a way which physicians determine a healthy person suffering from either heart attack or stroke. Most of the current models combine the family history of stroke and heart attack; we should rather model them separately. I found this interesting because this is true, we do see lot of current model combing patient’s family history of stroke and heart attack together, it is better to separate them to better solve the situation or current condition.

In this article, “Two genes in which variation affects intake of caffeine, the most widely consumed stimulant in the world, have been discovered.” At Chapel Hill, a team of investigators across the nation has examined the genetic variation across the entire genome. Two genes that were identified are CYP1A2 and AHR. The CYP1A2 is found in the metabolism of caffeine and the AHR is found in the regulation of CYP1A2. There is a variance of 1 can of cola or 1/3 cup of caffeinated coffee between individuals with highest consumption genotype and individuals with lowest consumption genotype for either gene. Caffeine is implicated in numerous physiological and medical conditions; it affects sleep patterns, energy levels, mood, and mental and physical performance. It will help us to better understand the genes that have an impact on our daily consumption. Not only that it will also provide insight into the speed of caffeine, how long does it take for caffeine to circulate in the blood and so on. This study is among the first to examine the entire genome for a relationship between genetics and caffeine intake, a lifestyle behavior relevant to over 90% of U.S. adults. I found this article to be interesting because I did not know that discovery of this genes will help us to better understand the impact on our daily consumption. It is good to know that Caffeine has a huge impact on our body.

In this article, the new research was aimed to identify the genetic factors that lead to breast cancer, however, the research have found a link between the fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO). Study in Northwestern Memorial Hospital, illustrate that people with FTO have up to 30 percent higher chance of developing breast cancer. There is not a clear sign why the link exists. However, experts say that with this discovery it will lead them to form a personalized medicine, which could reduce the risk and allow better monitoring, and prevent illness. Virginia Kaklamani, co-direct of the Cancer Genetics at Northwestern University, says that this is a remarkable discovery. Every individual have FTO gene, however only 18 percent carries FTO variant. Right now, there is no testing available for FTO variant, however in future we will have this testing available.
With availability of this testing, we will better identity people who are at risk. I found this article interesting because it talks about the new discovery. It is interesting to know because this new discovery will reduce the risk and will helps us form a personalized medicine.