Punnett's Square: sugar

Showing posts with label sugar. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Banning of Sugary Drinks

The University of California, San Francisco removed all sugary drinks from its campus. The purpose of the removal of sugary drinks was to see if there would be any effects when large amounts of sugar was to be removed.

The University based this removal on the studies based on the previous studies of obesity, diabetes, and other health risks. Many staff have also participated in this by only buying 100% juices or water. A tax was placed on sugary drinks to raise money on those who drink sugary drinks. One employee is already seeing the positivity of this banning.

"Eventually, she stopped bringing soda to work and started drinking water, tea and zero-calorie flavored drinks instead. She has lost five pounds and hopes to lose at least 20 more. She said she sometimes struggles to avoid sugary drinks when she is at home or going out with her friends, but feels good that the university no longer sells them at her place of work."

The reasoning of picking this article was because our campus has different options to drink but most of the options are sugary. From having a family with diabetics, it would be nice to see more sugarless options.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/well/eat/putting-sugary-soda-out-of-reach.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=30&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

Sunday, March 29, 2015

MRI based on a sugar molecule can tell cancerous from noncancerous cells.

A recent discussion of an article by John Hopkins Medicine states that the research done by Xiaolei Song, Ph.D., lead author, and the other scientists involved suggest that MRI has the possibility to replace tumor biopsies. Mammograms, CT scans, and other imaging tests have the ability to detect tumors, but invasive biopsies are still required to tell whether they are cancerous or not. This study discusses that an MRI could detect sugar molecules that are shed by the outer membrane of cancerous cells that are not on regular cells, so therefore a noninvasive technique to diagnosing a cancer. However, this technique has only been tested on test tube-grown cells and mice as of now. Jeff Bulte, Ph.D., a professor of radiology and radiological science in the Institute for Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says that when cells become cancerous, some of the proteins on their outer membrane become less slimy by shedding the previously mentioned sugar; so, by tuning the MRI to detect the sugars on a particular protein, they are able to see the difference between the cancerous and noncancerous cells. The research done by Bulte is built upon research done by other scientists where they found a finely tuned MRI detected glucose based on the way it interacts with surrounding water molecules. Their next step is to see whether or not this technique can tell the difference between more types of cancerous tumors from benign ones in live mice, as well as if it is even possible to use this technique on humans.

Again, more testing on human subjects needs to be done in order to test this technique; however, this could be a great step towards cancer research. Invasive procedures are tiring and can take it's toll, so having a technique to discover whether or not a tumor is cancerous seems like a great idea to me. But just because it has worked on the lab grown cells and the mice, doesn't mean that it will work on humans. I'm interested to see future studies on this.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Soft Drinks May Be Linked to Accelerated DNA Aging

In a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, it was determined that individuals who consumed one 12 oz bottle of soda each day showed DNA changes consistent with cells 4.6 years or older. In this study, 5,309 adults between the ages of 20-65 were polled on their soft-drink consumption habit. The researchers then analyzed DNA from each individual's white blood cells. It is important to note that the consumption of sugary soft drinks is also linked to obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

A 20 oz soft drink contains a whopping 16 tsp of sugar, so you might want to

think twice before you decide to send all of that sugar rushing into your blood stream.

Researchers discovered that telomeres were shorter in individuals who continually drank sugary soft drinks. Telomeres become shorter each time cells divide and are often indicators of human lifespan. Shortened telomeres could be the result of sugar rushing into the bloodstream after the consumption of a soft drink, which is known to cause oxidative stress and inflammation. Researchers call this, "the perfect storm for degrading telomeres." It is believed that soft drinks may be a large contributor to why we have such a huge epidemic of obesity and early disease onset. Dr. Elissa Epel stated, "regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease development, not only by straining the body's metabolic control of sugars, but also through accelerated cellular aging of tissue."

Telomeres are the DNA caps on the ends of chromosomes and

they are considered to be indicators of human life span.

This article grabbed by attention, as a have stayed away from the consumption of soft drinks for so long due to the myriad of negative side effects: increased risk of diabetes, carmel coloring (may be linked to cancer), tooth decay, and many others. After reading this article, it appears another negative side effect can be added to the list. I find it extremely fascinating that researchers have determined that individuals who regularly consume soft drinks have shorter telomeres. This study could have a profound impact on the future of human health.

Article [1]: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/now-trending-study-shows-soft-drinks-may-be-linked-to-accelerated-dna-aging/article21193196/