Feb 16 2010
The candles on your birthday cake tell you how many years you’ve lived through, but they might not be a reflection of your biological age.
Little bits of DNA called telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes. Over time, through repeated rounds of cell division, telomeres get shorter and shorter. Thus, telomere length is a marker of [...]
Jan 29 2010
Cancer of the pancreas, which strikes more than 40,000 men and women in the United States each year, is an especially deadly malignancy. There is no effective screening test for the disease and it is usually not detected until it has spread throughout the body. The five-year survival rate is only about 5%.
Understanding more about [...]
Dec 21 2009
A new study has identified more common genetic variants associated with increased risk for cleft lip and palate. Combined with two previous studies (more here and here), there are now four variations that have been associated with this birth defect that affects about one out of every 700 children born.
Clefting results from improper fusing during [...]
Nov 11 2009
The most common type of arthritis, osteoarthritis, occurs due to accumulated wear and tear – welcome to old age! – or from repetitive movements or injury. Rheumatoid arthritis, on the other hand, is caused by an autoimmune attack on the lining of the joints, resulting in stiffness, muscle aches, and general fatigue. Approximately two million [...]
Oct 19 2009
Lupus, which means “wolf” in Latin, gets its name from the skin manifestations sometimes seen in the disease. A physician in the 13th century thought they looked like wolf bites.
In autoimmune disorders, the immune system — which normally protects us from harmful, foreign substances — goes into overdrive and starts attacking the body’s own cells, [...]
Oct 16 2009
Previously in The Spittoon, we discussed two papers that identified genetic variants associated with hemoglobin levels in circulating blood.
But blood consists of much more than hemoglobin, and it is responsible for much more than just transporting oxygen. This week Nature Genetics published the results of two of the largest blood studies to date, which together [...]
Oct 12 2009
Doctors routinely order the complete blood count (CBC) for their patients because they can learn a lot about a person’s health by measuring the numbers of different types of blood cells in the circulation, their sizes and the ratios between them.
One component of the CBC is usually a measure of the total amount of hemoglobin, [...]
Oct 05 2009
Our bones are amazing structures, capable of supporting tremendous force through complex motions. They do this day in and day out, year after year as we sit, stand, walk, run, lift, work, and play. But as the elderly among us know all too well, bones are not invincible and become more fragile as we age. [...]
Sep 29 2009
In the United States, prostate cancer affects about one in every six men. Genomewide association studies aimed at finding common genetic variants associated with this common disease have been particularly successful. More than a dozen SNPs have been associated with prostate cancer, but researchers calculate that these variants represent only a tiny fraction of the [...]
Sep 18 2009
Unlike the flu virus, which the body is generally able to fight off completely, infection with hepatitis C is often chronic. That means for most of the three to four million people worldwide who are newly infected each year the virus will persist in the body, where it greatly increases risk for chronic liver [...]
