Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Your medications and your genes


DNA and genetics are not my areas of specialty but I found this study very interesting and wanted to share it. Anyone who does have expertise on this...please respond!

Alprazolam (Xanax), a popular tranquilizer, was recently reported to "intercalate" with DNA. I'm providing a link to a Wikipedia piece on what intercalation is...in short, I gather it means that somehow Xanax incorporates itself into the structure of DNA itself. Which would mean, that it potentially changes how the DNA expresses itself. This finding prompted the research to issue caution about the random use of Xanax.

Makes me wonder when I see all these medications that are associated with weight gain, if other medications have the same ability? And it also makes me wonder if other compounds, even certain foods, might also affect DNA structure and function.

It's a whole lot more complex than "eat less and exercise more"...which is why I love reporting on this specialty so much! There is always something new and different to share that provides a potential answer to someone doing a Google search.

Saha B, Mukherjee A, Santra CR, Chattopadhyay A, Ghosh AN, Choudhuri U, Karmakar P. Alprazolam intercalates into DNA. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2009 Feb;26(4):421-30.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this interesting and scary thought. Surely we should know that everything impacts everything else (the butterfly effect) - so I suppose our bodies are no different.

Anthony Sepe said...

It is interesting and it is scarry too. Thank you for sharing this. Yet, it makes me wonder about and brings to mind some of the people that think that if they use the protein shampoo that it will change their hair; or change its structure or more curly or ... But, we all do know that the only thing that could make this different is taking in more dietary protein, which will then build more body protein. So, that protein shampoo just ain't -a -gonna, do a whole heck of a lot of good. Now, with that being said: medication and genes could be, and may be, a different thing. Still, to this day: eveytime I look at a telephone cord, I think of DNA and BioChemistry.
~Anthony Sepe
medicalnutritiontherapyservices.com
fromadietitiansperspective.blogspot.com