Gene Variants of a “Stress” Gene Have Profound Impacts on Health
Posted on April 1, 2013 by admin — No Comments ↓
Scientists can study stress by observing people who suffer from it. What are the physiological changes these people undergo, if any? Is their appetite normal? And what about the heart rate? Lots of observations are possible, meaning there a lot of ways to approach scientific research on stress. But now, researcher Dr. Liesbeth van Rossum of the Erasmus Medical Center (Netherlands) has found another way to study stress: by looking on the gene-scale level. She discovered that one gene in particular is important for the way we deal with stress. Interestingly, alternative forms of this gene are associated with differences in body composition and metabolic factors.