16, October 2014

Genes decide if you will love coffee or not

In a first, researchers have identified six new genetic variants associated with habitual coffee drinking, suggesting why some people love to have coffee while others hate to sip it.

The genome-wide large study, led by the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, helps explain why a given amount of coffee or caffeine has varied effects on different people.

"Our findings identifies sub-groups of people most likely to benefit from increasing or decreasing coffee consumption for optimal health," said Marilyn Cornelis, research associate in department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health.

To reach this conclusion, researchers, part of the Coffee and Caffeine Genetics Consortium, conducted a genome-wide meta-analysis of more than 120,000 regular coffee drinkers of European and African-American ancestry.

They identified six variants that mapped to genes in areas involved in caffeine metabolism, influencing the rewarding effects of caffeine and involved in glucose and lipid metabolism.

"The findings suggest that people naturally modulate their coffee intake to experience the optimal effects exerted by caffeine and that the strongest genetic factors linked to increased coffee intake likely work by directly increasing caffeine metabolism," Cornelis explained.

Genetics have long been suspected of contributing to individual differences in response to coffee and caffeine.

"Like previous genetic analyses of smoking and alcohol consumption, this research serves as an example of how genetics can influence some types of habitual behaviour," added Daniel Chasman, associate professor at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The study appeared online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

16.10.2014

Stress ups Alzheimer's risk in shy women

Women who are shy and more sensitive to stress are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, found a research.

Women who worry, cope poorly with stress and experience mood swings in middle age run a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease later in life, it showed.

"Some studies have shown that long periods of stress can increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and our main hypothesis is that it is the stress itself that is harmful," said Lena Johansson, scientist at the University of Gothenburg' Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden.

Shy women who, at the same time became easily worried, turned out to have the highest risk in the study.

People who have neuroticism are more readily worried, distressed and experience mood swings. They often have difficulty in managing stress.

"A person with neurotic tendencies is more sensitive to stress than other people," Johansson added.

The study carried out at the Sahlgrenska Academy followed 800 women for nearly 40 years.

The women stated whether they had experienced long periods of high stress and underwent memory tests.

At the follow-up in 2006, nearly 40 years later, around one fifth of these women had developed conditions associated with dementia.

"We could see that the women who developed Alzheimer's disease had been identified in the personality test 40 years earlier as having neurotic tendencies," Johansson pointed out.

The study is forthcoming in the journal Neurology.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

16.10.2014

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