BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Author: ebgfa12

Spring Allergies?

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On March 15, 2012

In Student Post

Photo Credit Flickr user: spakattacks

I don’t know about you but, I tend to have very severe environmental allergies in the spring. And spring is right around the corner! These allergies are often called hay fever. I came across an article that sheds light on some things one might be doing to aggravate spring allergies.

I found it very surprising that one of the things that can aggravate your allergy suffering is “noshing of fruits and veggies.” One of my favorite snacks is strawberries, but could this cause me more suffering during my allergy season? Many people who have seasonal allergies also suffer from pollen food allergy syndrome (also known as oral allergy syndrome). About 70 percent of people with birch tree allergies and about one in five people with grass allergies suffer from this condition. (my odds are pretty high).

You  might be wondering how you can tell if you have allergies or just a common cold. Here is an article that has more information on how to determine if you are sick with a cold or have allergies.

Now that I may have to stop snacking on fruit so much, I researched meals to help fight allergies. I also researched just some foods in general that will help with spring allergies, cause I most likely won’t have time to cook all those meals. Who knows maybe these foods could actually make a difference!

The best advice is not to procrastinate and start taking medicine before your symptoms will appear. There are many over the counter allergy medicines, but your allergist or doctor could always prescribe something stronger if necessary. Some experts are predicting spring of 2012 could be one of the worst allergy seasons in ten years due to the warmer temperatures in January. This increase in temperature has caused plants to begin blooming ahead of time. So I better stock up on some yogurt and fish!

 

The Importance of a Teenage Balanced Diet

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On February 27, 2012

In Student Post

 

Photo Credit Flickr User: Writing Program PTW

 

We all have heard someone in our life say: “what you do and how you act now will affect you in the years to come.” The teenage years set the foundation for the rest of your life. The choices you make on a daily basis affect you in later years. One of those daily choices is what you eat, and this choice is more important in your teenage years than you think.

A recent study sheds light on the importance of specifically iron intake in your teen years. Iron has more of an influence on ones brain than most would think. Professor Paul Thompson measured levels of transferrin in adolescents and discovered the “transferrin levels were related to detectable differences in both the brain’s macro-structure and micro-structure when the adolescents reached young adulthood.” Iron and the proteins that transport iron are critical for brain function.

After reading this article one problem I found is too little iron can result in cognitive problems but too much iron promotes neurodegenerative diseases.  So what is the right amount of iron intake? This article talks about iron intake and how much you should be incorporating in your diet everyday. Since both a deficiency and an excess of iron can have a negative impact that makes the body’s regulation of iron transport even more crucial.

A shocking aspect of this research was as it states in the article about the test subjects: “we were looking at people who were young and healthy — none of them would be considered iron-deficient.” The young individuals who were part of this study were not even iron-deficient! Yet still the research showed that healthy brain wiring in adults depends on iron levels in your teenage years.

Is it too late to start incorporating iron in your diet as an adult? Ofcourse not! You may be wondering how you can incorporate more iron in your diet. Iron can be taken in as a vitamin and found in many foods. As a healthy teenager you may not be always thinking about the things you eat but another thing people always say is: “you should have a balanced diet” and they are correct!

Secrets (almost) Revealed about the Evolution of Plants

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On January 11, 2012

In Student Post

Now that we are studying plants in class, and learning about different adaptations and some of the evolution of plants I thought this study would be interesting to look at.

The sequencing of the genome of a plant known as spikemoss, may give scientists a better understanding of how all kinds of plants evolved over the past 500 million years! This is the first sequencing for a non-seed vascular plant. Selaginella has been on this earth for about 200 million years and is a lycophyte

I was surprised that the Selaginella genome has about 22,300 genes and that’s small according professor Jody Banks. Selaginella is the only known plan to not have experienced a polyploidy event and is also missing the genes known in other plants to control flowing and becoming and adult. These genes are unknown in the Selaginella, but the genome would help scientists understand how these plants genes give the plant some unique characteristics and also help understand how Selaginella and other plants are evolutionarily connected.

The genome sequence was compared with others, and researchers identified genes that are present only in vascular and flowering plants. These genes that were identified most likely played important roles in the early evolution of vascular and flowering plants. Many of these genes have unknown functions, but it is likely that those genes that were identified may function in the development of fruits and seeds. Banks said: “[having an idea of what the function of the genes is] gives us ideas. It’s an important piece of the puzzle in understanding how plants evolved.” Also there are metabolic genes that evolved independently in Selaginella and flowering plant, which means Selaginella, could be a huge resource for new pharmaceuticals. The Selaginella is defiantly an interesting and great plant to study.

Photo Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/ki/195802378/

Make Sure You Are Getting the Full Health Benefits When You Eat Your Vegetables

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On November 2, 2011

In Student Post

 

 

My parents always told me eat my vegetables, but after reading a recent article, those vegetables they served me may not have provided all the health benefits my parents thought they would.

The article talks about how for broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables (examples: cauliflower, cabbage, kale) one must eat the “real thing”, not a supplement. There are some cases where supplements, like in the form of pills and vitamins, are recommended because they are better absorbed as a supplement than through food (example would be folic acid for pregnant women). This is not the case for vegetables, which is not surprising to me. I was a little surprised at the fact that the way broccoli is cooked also affects the actual health benefits you receive from the vegetable.

Since we are studying about enzymes I thought this article was good to look at because the researchers concluded that the reason broccoli and related vegetables need to come from the complete food to maximize their health value is because of an enzyme: myrosinase. This necessary enzyme is missing from most of the supplement forms of “glucosinolates” . Without myrosinase the research found, that the body actually absorbs five times less of one important compound and eight times less of another important compound (the article does not specifically address the names of those important compounds). By intensely cooking the broccoli at very high temperatures, essentially this important enzyme is lost and health value decreases greatly. So if you are eating very mushy and soft broccoli, the actual health value is very low. This makes senses because at boiling temperatures enzymes are  denatured. Essentially to maintain proper levels of the enzyme you want to cook the broccoli lightly for two or three minutes, or steam the broccoli until it’s still a little crunchy.

Broccoli was of particular interest in this study because it contains the highest levels of certain glucosinolates (defined in the article as: “a class of phytochemicals that many believe may reduce the risk of prostate, breast, lung, and colorectal cancer). When you eat real broccoli instead of a supplement and do not cook it until it is soft, enzymes in the broccoli help to break down the glucosinolates into valuable compounds: sulforaphane and erucin. Both compounds are important, but  in particular sulforaphane is relevant because it may help detoxify carcinogens and activate tumor suppressors genes. So if people want the real health benefits of broccoli and other vegetables like it, two simple guidelines to follow are: eat the real vegetable, and it either raw or very slightly cooked. For our next family meal I will probably ask to cook the vegetables.

 

 

 

Always Sick? It may not be your fault

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On September 29, 2011

In Student Post

I feel like I get sick more than most of my friends. I always come up with excuses as to why I am sick like: “I must have caught it from my sister”, “I’m just really stressed” or “my lack of sleep lowers my immune systems ability to fight off infection.” But now I have a new excuse: my genes.

A recent article immediately peaked my interest because it may not be my fault I am more susceptible to illnesses. An experimental study involved seventeen healthy individuals who were infected with a strain of seasonal flu (H3N2). Nine out of the seventeen got sick. The researchers drew blood before the individuals were infected and every eight hours for the next five days. Then examined the activity of 22,000 genes in each blood sample. Patterns in gene activity could predict how sick people would get.

Our immune systems respond to “foreign invaders.”  Surprisingly  the immune systems of the people who got sick and did not get sick acted similarly. Those who got sick activated “immune chemicals” that trigger inflammation and stress responses, and those who did not get sick still had an active immune response but “repressed the stress response [and] activated anti-inflammation and antioxidant genes.”

This study illustrates that gene activity analysis might be able to help doctors determine the patients who are in danger of getting seriously sick.

Despite these findings I think the researchers need to determine whether the different patterns of responses depend only on a persons genes. In this study in particular the properties of the specific virus that the individuals were infected with could have played a role in the findings, and maybe a different strain of flu would yield different results.

Still, the next time I get sick I might be blaming the genes I inherited. Thanks Mom and Dad.

 

 

 

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