According to one of the authors of the study, such results will help explain why alcohol is addictive, and perhaps in the future find a way to treat alcoholism and save people from this attachment.
Scientists from Rutgers and Yale universities selected people and divided them into several groups: those who do not drink alcohol, those who drink moderately, those who abuse alcohol, and alcoholics.
Scientists wanted to compare the state of two genes: PER2, which is responsible for sleep and wakefulness, that is, for the regulation of the biological clock, and POMC (proopiomelanocortin), which controls the body’s response to stress. It turned out that in people from the last two groups methylation of these two genes occurred – a modification of the molecules. Scientists also noticed a decrease in gene expression – the rate at which genes create proteins.
As part of the same study, scientists conducted an experiment: participants were shown images related to stress, alcohol or neutral content. They were also shown containers with beer, after which the participants tasted it, and the researchers evaluated their desire to drink.
As a result, scientists came to the following conclusion: changes caused by alcohol in the genes of alcoholics and those who abuse alcohol are associated with an increase in craving for alcohol.
Research: push-ups will help assess the risk of developing cardiovascular disease
The Harvard University study involved 1,110 active male firefighters over 18 years of age. Scientists divided them into five groups, depending on how many push-ups they could do, and monitored their health for ten years.
Over the course of these ten years, 37 men were diagnosed with various cardiovascular diseases, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, and others. At the same time, 36 men of this group were not able to do 40 push-ups at the beginning of the study. Men who managed to complete more than 40 push-ups had 96% fewer cases of cardiovascular disease compared with those who completed less than ten push-ups.
Scientists emphasize that male firefighters are a narrow group, and there is no guarantee that other people will have the same results. It has long been known that good physical fitness reduces the risk of heart problems. But for diagnostic purposes, doctors do not yet use push-ups. “Our results show that push-ups can be a simple and free method for assessing the risk of cardiovascular disease in virtually any environment. Surprisingly, the ability to do push-ups is more associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease than the results of tests on a treadmill, ” says study lead author Justin Yang.
Heart disease and its associated complications are the leading cause of death worldwide, according to the American Heart Association. In addition to physical activity, a healthy diet, smoking cessation, and adequate sleep can reduce the risk of heart disease.
A study of twin astronauts showed what happens to the human body in space
During the ” Experiment twin » (Twin study) scientists collected molecular, physiological and cognitive profiles of two brothers. Scott Kelly spent 340 days (from 2015 to 2016) on the ISS, and his brother Mark, also an astronaut, all this time remained on Earth. The participation of two twins in the experiment was the most important condition that made it possible to exclude genetic features and focus on external factors that influence the human body during space flight.
Scott had many physical and genetic changes that were not captured by his brother Mark Kelly. For example, during his work on the ISS, Scott lost about 7% of his body weight, while Mark, on the contrary, gained 4%. Scott Kelly’s blood pressure in space decreased, but due to the load, the walls of the vessels became thicker (such changes are characteristic of atherosclerosis). On Earth, thickening of the walls of blood vessels is associated with high pressure and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Upon returning to Earth, Scott, like many astronauts, had problems with vision – scientists suggest that the blame for this is the change in pressure in the eye vessels under gravity. During a space flight, Scott was more stressed than his brother on Earth: the concentration of stress (pro-inflammatory) markers in Scott’s blood was higher. However, the overall activity of the immune system was approximately the same. While in orbit with Scott, the average length of telomeres, markers of the aging of the body, increased by about 14.5%.
Most of the changes that occurred during a space flight disappeared after returning to Earth: genes began to work as before, vision returned to normal, telomeres shortened, pressure stabilized. Nevertheless, the long-term consequences of being in space are still unknown, and before sending the first people to Mars, NASA researchers will have to conduct even more ambitious experiments to identify – as far as possible in principle – all the risks.
