CMC'S
NEWS' REVIEW (V), by Marina Dorca
News'
title: Can soft
drinks speed aging?
Date
of publication: 25th
of November, 2014
Source
of information: Student Society for Science:
Scientific
field: Biology
(biomedicine)
Extract:
This
article talks about an study which investigates the damage soft
drinks can cause. They've found out that it fattens, and that it can
boost the risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart and liver
disease,...).
The
study started with an hypothesis that shorter telomeres raise a
person's risk fpr such diseases and for some cancers. Then, to check
if that was true, they made a health data with different adult people
(aproximately 140000). This survery concluded with the evidendce that
drinking 8 ounces of soda daily added 1,9 years of cellular aging.
 |
| Soda cans |
 |
| More examples of soft drinks |
Critical
appraisal:
In
my opinion, I really value such news, as they are great information
for improving our health habits. Moreover, these studies are good for
warning people
of the effects of
eating certain foods or drinks in
large quantities, and eventually making
them think of changing his food habits.
On
the other hand, we don't have to believe this studies 100%, as there
are also other variables that aren't the subject of study but still
could have influenced the results of the survey. For this reason, we
have to be critical with such results, because they may not always
show exactly the relation between two variables, but the result of a
mix of lots of other secondary aspects. Besides, I think that
multinationals that commercialize
soft
drinks make
pressure on media because
they don't want people to read this kind of news. This is because
they fear that this researches, which show that soft drinks are bad
for health, could decrease their revenues. I find this action egoist,
because they put
their economic
interests ahead of the health of people.
Video:
This video shows why soft drinks are bad for you from a biological and chemical view.
Glossary:
chromosome A single threadlike piece of coiled DNA found in a cell’s nucleus. A chromosome is generally X-shaped in animals and plants. Some segments of DNA in a chromosome are genes. Other segments of DNA in a chromosome are landing pads for proteins. The function of other segments of DNA in chromosomes is still not fully understood by scientists.
constituent An ingredient or building block of some material.
epidemiologist Like health detectives, these researchers figure out what causes a particular illness and how to limit its spread.
fructose A simple sugar that (along with glucose) makes up half of each molecule of sucrose, also known as table sugar.
liver An organ of the body of animals with backbones that performs a number of important functions. It can store fat and sugar as energy, breakdown harmful substances for excretion by the body, and secrete bile, a greenish fluid released into the gut, where it helps digest fats and neutralize acids.
nucleotides The four chemicals that link up the two strands that make up DNA. They are: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine) and G (guanine). A links with T, and C links with G, to form DNA.
telomere A natural protective “cap” on the ends of chromosomes, made by successions of a six-nucleotide sequence of chemicals. This chemical sequence is found only on the ends of chromosomes. It’s known as TTAGGG, where each T corresponds to a molecule of thymine, each A is a molecule of adenine and each G is a molecule of guanine. Over time, telomeres shorten as the cell they’re in copies itself. If the telomere length gets too short, the cell stops dividing and dies.
variable (in experiments) A factor that can be changed, especially one allowed to change in a scientific experiment. For instance, when measuring how much insecticide it might take to kill a fly, researchers might change the dose or the age at which the insect is exposed. Both the dose and age would be variables in this experiment.
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