Interesting Science Stories: Diabetes, Nano-Motors, Nutrition-Cancer

[jyl]

200,000 person study quantifies impact of diet, exercise, weight, smoking, drinking on odds of developing diabetes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904900904576552553270065800.html?m od=googlenews_wsj

"Researchers led by Jared Reis, an epidemiologist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, grouped study participants into lifestyle categories ranging from "best" to "worst." People in the best category had all five healthy-lifestyle factors, while those in the worst had none.

For diet, people received a score of one to five based on fruit and vegetable consumption, the amount of and type of fat they ate and other factors. Those who scored in the top 40% were considered to have a healthy diet. Exercising three times a week for at least 20 minutes, and being a nonsmoker for at least 10 years were two additional healthy-lifestyle factors. Alcohol consumption of no more than one drink a day for women and two for men was considered as another factor, along with weight. People with a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9—a body-mass measure that is considered normal—were counted as being in the lowest-risk category for weight.

Dr. Reis said the average study participant had two out of five healthy lifestyle factors.

Overall, researchers found that body mass index had the strongest association among the factors for diabetes risk. When looking at BMI in isolation, men of normal weight were 70% less likely to develop diabetes than overweight or obese men, while normal weight women were 78% less likely to develop diabetes."

Electric motor made from a single molecule

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/209044/20110906/tufts-university-world-s-first-single-molecule-electric-motor-guinness-world-records.htm

""The excitement is in the demonstration that you can provide electricity to a single molecule and gets it to do something that's not just random," says team leader Charles Sykes, as reported in TuftsNow."

Mother's diet during pregnancy may affect daughter's odds of developing breast cancer.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/332937/group/Life/

"In Park’s research titled “In Utero Exposure to Dietary Methyl Nutrients and Breast Cancer Risk in Offspring,” the professor studied 45 rats split into two groups.

One served as a control group while the other was fed a supplemented diet.

Female pups were given a chemical to induce breast cancer and were followed for tumor development. Study results showed that offspring whose mothers received the supplemented diet showed a decrease in tumor incidence and growth and had fewer tumors and fewer tumors that multiplied than the control group.". [very, very preliminary finding, but still interesting, say I]

[jyl]

I think it's interesting that the average man in the diabetes study had only 2 of 5 "healthy lifestyle" factors. IIRC, those factors were weight (BMI <26), diet (more veggies etc), smoking (not), alcohol (max 1/day), exercise (at least 3 x 20 min each week).

Come to think of it, until recently I had only 2 of those factors. Hmm, the mirror looms close.

Well, never too late.

[sc_rufctr]

Time for my walk. (about 1.5 hours tonight)

I've been walking almost every evening for nearly 4 years and it hasn't done me any harm.

[sc_rufctr]

^^^ Just got home...