Genes, exercise, diet and heart risk

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Hi All,

Twin studies are effective. The below describes two pdf-available articles that

are

hopefully not corrupted for the first described below.

Genes key to body's cholesterol response: twin study

Last Updated Fri, 08 Jul 2005 19:07:33 EDT

CBC News

Genes may matter more than exercise in how our bodies respond to eating fatty

foods

like ice cream, research on identical twins shows.

Researchers in California recruited 28 pairs of identical male twins who shared

the

same genes but led different lifestyles.

In each pair, one twin was a long-distance runner while the other was a

comparative

couch potato who barely clocked 40 kilometres a week or less.

of Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division and his team looked at

how

each twin's body responded to eating a diet high in fat given their sharp

differences in exercise levels.

For six weeks, each twin ate foods with either 40 per cent of calories from fat

or

20 per cent of calories from fat. Then they switched to eating the other diet.

Blood cholesterol levels were measured each week.

" If one of the twins could eat a high-fat diet without increasing his bad

cholesterol, then so could his brother, " said . " But if one of the

twins'

LDL cholesterol shot up when they went on the high-fat diet, his brother's did

too. "

Statistically speaking, LDL or " bad " cholesterol showed a 0.7 correlation or

response to change in diet, meaning each pair of twins responded in very similar

ways.

In some cases, genes allowed twins to be very sensitive to the amount of fat in

their diet; for others, indulging made little difference.

Anecdotally, some people have to be careful about their diet while others can be

more free in their choices. The twin findings support the idea that genes matter

for

cholesterol response.

The study appears in the July 8 issue of the American Journal of Clinical

Nutrition.

The research was sponsored by the Dairy Management Incorporated and the National

Institutes of Health.

Not all in the genes

Although identical twins share the same DNA, the expression of their genes can

change over time.

Genetics researchers in Ohio came to the conclusion after studying 80 sets of

identical twins in Spain who ranged in age from three to 74.

The patterns of active genes were nearly the same in young twins but more

differences cropped up with age, the team found.

Twins who spent less of their lives together or had different medical histories

showed more differences, the study's authors report in this week's Proceedings

of

the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings support the idea that environmental factors such as smoking, diet

and

exercise may affect gene activity.

Al Pater, PhD; email: old542000@...

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