Want to gain weight? Increase your iron level.

At least it works for yeast. As much as we like to believe that humans are unique, even the humble yeast shares many of our genetic pathways.

Drs. Thiele and Geller at Duke University have discovered that if cells are deficient in iron, they respond by shunting the iron from the mitochondria of the cells to other places more critical for life. The cells then make more of their ATP (energy units) from glucose by a much less efficient method -18 times less energy from the same amount of glucose. This can result in lethargy and also poor cognitive development.

A longer summary of this article may be found at http://www.eurekalert.org/ Duke scientists show why cells starved of iron burn more glucose

Earlier research by another group showed that at the age of puberty when women begin losing iron due to menstruation, they need to make sure their iron levels are sufficient. This iron anemia seems to be one of the reasons that men overtake women in math ability at that time.

Alcohol Increases Your Risk of Getting Breast Cancer

Red wine is good for you, right? – Buzzz. - Not when it comes to breast cancer. According to a study involving 70,033 multi-ethnic women, anything that contains alcohol increases your risk for breast cancer.

How much of a risk are we talking about? Compared to women who drank less than one alcoholic beverage a day, those drinking one or two had a 10% increased risk. Those drinking three of more per day had an increased risk of 30%.

This 30% risk is similar to the increase in risk which results from smoking a pack or more of cigarettes per day.

The statistical risk of using Hormone Replacement (HR) is not universally agreed upon. One study reported an increased risk of 1 chance in 60 and another an increase of 1 chance in 1000 of developing breast cancer from use of conjugated progesterone/estrogenic hormones or plain estrogen.

Unfortunately, the jury is still out on the effects of the hormone therapies. In the meanwhile, drug companies are rushing to supply us with drugs to reduce development of osteoporosis, weight gain, circulatory disorders and hot flashes.

The information on the alcohol effects was presented by Dr. Arthur Klatsky of the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Oakland, USA at the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) in Barcelona.

For further information on how alcohol affects the development of breast cancer, go to http://www.eurekalert.org - Wine, women and... spirits, beer and breast cancer risk

A New Way to Inherit Diabetes 2

A study by Pravenec, et al has shown that there can be a variation in mitochondrial genes which codes for metabolic changes resulting in Diabetes 2. Virtually always, you receive your mitochondria only from you mother. Thus, if your mother has the mitochondrial gene for Diabetes 2, you will inherit the tendency to have it. This means that in at least some cases, you may inherit the tendency to develop Diabetes 2 from your mother – not your father.

Please note that this new information does not indicate that there are no nuclear genes that code for Diabetes 2, but that there is a separate genetic component for inheriting this, and other disorders.

This article was released on August 10, 2007 by the online journal, Genome Research (www.genome.org), a division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

A fuller summary of this study can be found at <http://www.Eurekalert.org - Scientists show that mitochondrial DNA variants are linked to risk factors for type 2 diabetes>.

My thought on this matter; I need to follow my doctor’s advice: increase my exercise and keep my weight under control. Not the easiest advice to follow, is it? But it decreases the likelihood of getting Diabetes 2 as well as other degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis and Alzheimer’s.