Mutated perch

Four beautifully orange perches have in a short period of time been caught in one lake here in Finland.

The outlook of the fish differs from the usual perch by being yellow and orange instead of their normal darker colours and black stripes. Fisherman first suspected the outlook of the perch being a result of industrial chemicals getting into the lake, but the scientists lean mote towards it being a form of genetic mutation of the perches, even more so as one of the caught fish weighed over one kilogramme.

And as these extras ordinary fish have survived and lived to be this big, there is a possibility of more of these mutated fish swimming around in the depths of this lake. This makes me think of the so called golden perch for sale occasionally in some supermarkets, as I have always felt they must be some form of a mutation.

So here comes the trick question, are these mutated, intentionally or non-intentionally genetically mutated fish, safe to digest?

Choose your parents well

Dear spouse of mine watched a very interesting TV show some time ago, that I was unfortunately not able to see at the time, but was referred about very keenly so I had to google about it.

The programme was very interesting indeed, and I went through extensive research criss-crossing the Internet. As you might know, gene research has been going on for some time now and we learn more and more about genes and their effect on us as time goes by and I was surprised to hear that a gene mutation actually can be good for you!

I had always thought mutated and malformed genes were bad for you but no, not always, is the case so. In fact, possessing this particular mutated gene could save your life, and the lives of your children

About an average of 10% of the European population are estimated to have this mutation in their CCR5 gene. 16 % of the Finns and Russians and 14 % the Scandinavians possess the same gene.

This particular gene is called the CCR5 and the malformed itself has its’ own name, “Δ32”.

But first we have to leap back to the dark middle ages and then back to our time in order to understand what I am ranting about here. What was going on in the middle-ages? Well,” the black death” or the plague, was two thirds of the population of Europe and those with the mutated Δ32 inherited genomic sequence are those who survived, passing on their defect gene, which in this case was life saving, to their off-spring. Generations and generations passed by and then came the HIV-virus and AIDS.

You might now wonder where the connection is, if there is any at all, but I assure you that there is one.

Now comes the interesting part, the Finns are said to be resistant to HIV infection, but who wants to try it out on the entire population as they might be so absolutely wrong as they can be. According to research the possession of the Δ32 gene makes you of HIV if you inherit it doubly, that is from both your parents. If you have inherited only the half you are able to delay the onset of HIV once you’ve become infected.

So if you want to have unprotected sex and no worries about HIV, be aware of whom you chose as your parents and ancestors!

Sunday shopping

With Finland being a Christian country with a traditional Sundays rest seems a bit off in today’s urban society when Sundays happens to be the day when people have time to go places being off work, so the shops Sunday closing has seemed a bit strange. Now there is going to be a change in that and even hardware stores are going to be taken in consideration for Sunday openings in the new law proposal. According to a recently done Gallup households with children would appreciate the Sunday openings the most.

Anyway, I was shocked to by accident find out that my blood pressure has skyrocketed with out no apparent reason at all. A blood pressure going from normal this spring into 140/100 now and staying need some serious research done as no apparent lifestyle changes have been done, no radical weight gain as anything else in order to point out the reason for it. As it happens we do have a history of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity in my family but no one has had this high blood pressure as I have been discovered with. So now I am going to have some blood test done to be able to make a second doctor’s appointment in order to hear the results. I always thought I held a healthy life, with a well balanced diet even though I have been lazy about getting enough exercise due to the arthritis in my right knee, which has developed over the years after a skiing accident in my youth.

But maybe it is not always the choices we make of our own that determines how health we are, maybe the genes have an even greater role in this as well than thought before.

10% lefties

Did you know that about 10% of the population of the world is left handed and whether you are destined to be right- or left-handed is destined by our genes? They say that left-handed people are no more accident prone than right handed, well if I were left handed I night change that statistics. The scientists further say that the same inherited gene most certainly causes left-handedness but it also determines whether you might become schizophrenic or not.

Anyway, I have lately been very busy writing, well obviously not this Blog of mine, that you might have guessed already, but this children’s book of mine that has been planned now for years is now finally well on its’ way into becoming reality.

We are both working hard at the moment with the book, both I and my illustrator, and we hope to be able to have the book ready and available for sale by this Christmas. And as it is a Christmas story, about a little cat and the Christmas-tree, it would be quite appropriate too to have it released just in time before Christmas.

Right now I just feel I am running out of time so I will get back to my re-writing after a nice cup of tea.

Spaghetti Bolognese

According to recently published research your genes decide what foods you like. We all inherit a disposition to either like or dislike certain foods; how they taste according to the “palate” you have inherited from your ancestors. I thought that maybe the environment also had something to do with it, getting accustomed to new foods and tastes.

Well guess this does not count for taste in clothes or style, there I am certain it has to do with influences coming from them you are surrounded by or maybe just some people are style blind, similar to being colour blind. Sometimes I find it hard to see my mum looking back at me in the mirror in the mornings, I somehow never seem to see my dad there even though I look much alike them both, just depending on which one of them I am compared to. So inheriting your taste you get half and half of your parents, we just have to hope they have a good taste. Can’t live on bangers and mash all the time, or can you? The same pork sausages and potato-mash every single day, how boring would that be?!?

I just yesterday had tacos for the first time in years and they used to be my absolute favourite once years ago. I really don’t know what I like most nowadays, it tends to run in periods and as I do most of the cooking in this family well the rest of the family gets a bit bored with some dishes sometimes, maybe it now is time to go for them tacos again for a while?

The offspring was quite keen on spaghetti Bolognese a couple of years ago and I thought that we will find out how long we can eat it every day as I got tired of the same routine answer when asked what was wanted for dinner. I got tired after 10 days and still the answer to my question what shall I make for dinner was; Spaghetti Bolognese. Well, I like it too but not that much, and not for some time after the 10 days of eating it. So maybe it does run in families after all.

Left or right?

Scientists have found the gene that makes people left-handed and the scientists believe that the same gene makes the brain lobes develop differently from right handed, when the left side becomes different from the right.

Moving as such is a very traumatic experience for all involved people. You first have to choose what to throw away and what to save. Then pack all your precious things so they will not break, carry all the furniture and boxes you have packed out of your home and carry them once again into the new home.

The whole thing gets even more complicated if you are splitting up or divorcing after many years or living together. Another thing that adds to the turmoil of emotions is the children that also are going through the separation, if to live with mummy or with daddy, what things to keep at mummy’s place and what to have at daddy’s. Sometimes the aftermaths of tearing up a home become too painful and you can just not bear it anymore.

Many parents try hard to keep up with the daily lives of their children that live with the other parent; many try to meet their children as often as possible. When everything is against you with the other parent making things difficult with making things up on your agreed days to see your own children and subtly at home use the art form of blackmail you, as the other parent one day just give in. You have been through so much pain that you can not take anymore of it and just let your own kids be. How many parents are wrongly accused of being bad parents and instead the other parent the children live with uses all weapons to get back at you for all the wrongs they have suffered forgetting that the children are deprived of one of their other parent.

I wonder how the brain becomes different with left handed people, are they more creative or what?

Yup still have to decide whether it is the left or the right thing to do.

Best thing

More and more people die of liver cirrhosis in Finland due to high alcohol consumption together with an inherited deficit inflammation gene. Almost a thousand people died in the year 2005 of liver cirrhosis with it having about doubled from the year 1999 and we can only presume this is due to hard liquor getting cheaper and more cost effective to get intoxicated by a couple of years ago. Well alcohol consumption has always been high here in the Nordic countries.

Smoking is another a past-time that comes in handy when you are experiencing difficulties in life, it is amazing to see perfectly sane people get completely messed up like the husband of my friend who tried this new medication but had a couple of downward side-effects. Now both she and her husband are smoking again, but at least now they are talking with each other again and as it seems they might not even let the divorce get through.

The smoking part just seems so in vain to first have quit smoking after 30 odd years with medication a couple of years earlier and then have to do it once again later. I am quite happy to not be able to get any of my usual brand cigarettes here in Finland and am only able to smoke when abroad on vacation. And this is one of the best things about living in Finland so far, for me that is.

Genetics and heredity

I just found out that genetics is not as easy as has been thought earlier. It is not just the genes we inherit from our ancestors that decide how we look and are, the genes are also affected by other things by our surroundings and can be either switched on or off, and depending on from which parent you inherit them from they can affect you in different ways. Like for instance a defect genome inherited from your maternal side gives you a different disease than the same exactly in the same way defect genome inherited from your paternal side. Wow!

So it depends on not only the genomes we inherit, the environment and the lives of our ancestors also decide how we are to be and look.

No wonder the variations among humans are large and there is nobody like the unique you, as the variations and combinations still are innumerable with 30.000 genes. And the scientist were worried for a while when they found out that we “only” have about 30.000 genes as some plants can have 60.000.

Well, this certainly calls for some tea, or maybe coffee to improve my health?!?