Science, Museums, and Adornment

[browngirl]

Heredity and metabolism: drglam told me about studies that indicate that if one's parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents underwent a famine, one can be at increased risk for metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes (the mechanism involves dna methylation, apparently). I immediately thought of the higher rates of obesity and diabetes amonng African-Americans and the malnutrition endemic among slaves and sharecroppers. Man, if I were twenty I would immediately set out to write a disseration on this.

Museums: like this writer, I was commuting (on a shuttlebus) when I glanced up and saw on a building's side, "MGH museum of medical innovation". I need to go see that, and so many other museums around Boston, so this is my note to myself.

While I sat on that bus I had my hair up in a bun with a white scarf tied around it; today I have a pink one. The new variant on my hairstyle has gotten me several compliments, and it's just... a lot of fun, feeling a scarf fluttering behind me like a flag as I walk outside. I'm rather indulging my frivolous side, but I don't think it'll rot my soul. :D

Comments

[ron_newman]

If you can post links to those studies (or to lay articles about them) I'd really like to read them. Thanks.

(And I too want to check out that new MGH museum some time soon. Do you have a trip planned yet?)

[purlewe.livejournal.com]

I want a foto of your gorgeousness with the scarf all aflutter.

[jenny_evergreen]

Ditto!

And museums are yay.

And science is cool.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

me three! & do you think the style would suit fang?

[gingicat]

A fluttery scarf ponytail would look extremely nifty, but to be exactly the same look, you'd have to bundle up Fang into a loose bun.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i do buns, particularly in summer when i want the hair off my neck...

[ron_newman]

me four!

[sockich.livejournal.com]

+1 to this. :)

[gosling.livejournal.com]

Me too! Or, even better, to see it in person. :-)

[branna.livejournal.com]

If the alternate-twenty-year-old you wrote that dissertation, I'd sure want to read it :)

The whole science of epigenetics utterly fascinates me. The interaction of environment and heredity is so much more complex than we thought.

[gosling.livejournal.com]

All of this. :-)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

There seems to be a link between famine-surviving populations and celiac, too, iirc. That one, I can't figure.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Are you sure that obesity is a disorder in itself?

Possibly of interest: Diabetes Rising-- a book by a medical journalist which says both types of diabetes (and the distinction isn't as clear-cut as they're telling you) have been increasing for the past century, and none of the theories about why really explain what's going on.

Another angle-- how much are dieting (encouraged for fat women during pregnancy) and eating disorders contributing to obesity?

[gosling.livejournal.com]

I'd say dieting and eating disorders were contributing quite a bit. Famine, whether self-inflicted or imposed externally, does all sorts of subtle and less than pleasant things to hormones (and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it impacted one in utero more than any other time, though I imagine childhood and especially adolescence are probably pretty critical times as well).

Also, I do not actually believe obesity to be a disorder in of itself. (Some day, in an alternative universe where I have time to do so, I could write a great many paragraphs on this.)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Are you sure that obesity is a disorder in itself?

No. No no no no no.

I-- am going to have to explain what I meant by a too-hastily written sentence, how I think obesity can be related to metabolic disorders, depending on the person, human variation bla bla bla --- sometime when I am not tipsy and smarting. But no, I did not mean that and I wrote too quickly and stuff.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Plastics may be playing a role. The increasing reliance on highly processed carbs as dietary staples, and rising prices of produce, cannot be helping, either.

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

One day, I want to see Boston. :)

[capra-maritimus.livejournal.com]

On a vauguely related note, laerwen also posted a link to this article today :

http://acestoohigh.com/2012/04/23/lincoln-high-school-in-walla-walla-wa-tries-new-approach-to-school-discipline-expulsions-drop-85/

Severe and chronic trauma (such as living with an alcoholic parent, or watching in terror as your mom gets beat up) causes toxic stress in kids. Toxic stress damages kid’s brains. When trauma launches kids into flight, fight or fright mode, they cannot learn. It is physiologically impossible.

[brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com]

Things of which I approve:
* writing dissertations
* museums
* putting pretty things in one's hair.

Carry on!

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Those studies sound fascinating! Does drglam have some references for us?

Your frivolous side needs some air, and I'm happy to hear that she's getting some.

If I were in better health, I'd totally want to go to the Museum of Medical Innovation with you.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Search for "famine, metabolic, obesity," or for "thrifty gene hypothesis"; there is a lot of material out there. I currently am busy being fascinated by the role of mitochondrial function in diabetes (and perhaps other metabolic dysfunction) and the possible reversibility of renal, retinal and other dysfunction in diabetics.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

those studies

[redbird]

I could file this under "one more reason to worry," but it's seventy years too late for anyone to do anything about in my case. I guess I will keep trying to take care of myself, and try not to fret. On the other hand, I like the idea of Godwining the "you should lose weight" discussions" (though the tsar probably deserves some of the blame as well).

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

Thing 1: yet another reason not to crash-diet.

Thing 2: Yeah!

Thing 3: In college, whenever the dining hall had a special-event type meal with balloons, I'd tie a balloon to my bun and go around that way for most of the rest of the day. How's that for frivolous? :)

[echoinautumn.livejournal.com]

What a lovely image, with you and your scarf :3

(I don't think I can speak to your first point with any authority, but it is very interesting!)

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

wow. i had no idea epigenetic changes could span so many generations - that's freakily reminiscent of lamarckism.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

I want to check out that MGH museum too. I think it just opened in April. I keep meaning to take photos of it while the copper is still gleaming -- before it eventually turns green. Free admission but it's annoyingly only open weekdays 9am-5pm. :P