Mother Talkers

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  • One of the interesting things about heart disease (0 / 0)

    is that there seems to be an infectious component - for example, it's linked to gingivitis and gum disease. They're thinking that arterial plaque may be as much about inflammation as dietary cholesterol.

    I think it's remarkable how much more we know about genetics than when I was in school - and even how far we've gone, it seems we're just one tiny step towards understanding much if anything. Horse color was my entree into the topic, and the more we learn the more questions we have. Now that we have ducks, I am just astounded by the complexity of the color patterns in their feathers - every feather itself carrying a complex pattern, and different from its neighbors - and yet, I have a pair of ducks with this complex pattern that are completely identical. I'm good at telling animals apart - two black labs, no problem! - but I cannot distinguish between these two ducks.

    I rather regret not going into biology after all. ;-)

    by shenanigans on Thu May 08, 2008 at 10:52:08 AM PDT

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    • I don't want to talk about how (0 / 0)

      many years its been since I've taken a formal course in biology or genetics....sometime since the discovery of penicillin is about as much as I'm willing to admit!  I always like genetics, too...but it fits in with my tendencies to reduce everything to gridwork!  

      http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/...

      Interesting work being done in heart disease.  Similar studies could be found linking neurological conditions to each other, too.  Our understanding is expanding day  by day.  We can't change our genes, but we most certainly can monitor factors such as inflammation markers if we have reason to believe we are genetically    predisposed to certain conditions.  

      by tjb22 on Thu May 08, 2008 at 01:39:17 PM PDT

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    • inflammation (0 / 0)

      Inflammation is where it's at, baby!  It's a long underappreciated aspect of immune function that in recent years has become the hot topic du jour.  It's possible that the way baby aspirin reduces heart attacks (at least in men) is by lowering the overall level of inflammation just a little bit, year after year.  

      by lyn on Thu May 08, 2008 at 03:03:09 PM PDT

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