Cancer is one of those fatal diseases which scientists are still finding a cure for. While some types of cancers are treatable, some are not. Oftentimes, cancer is not even detected until the final stage. Arm yourself against the disease with the newest findings on the subject.
From sitting at your office desk all day to heavy drinking… various factors can cause cancer. Take a look at the latest research on the deadly disease.
The more people drink, the quicker their cells age, placing heavy drinkers at a higher risk of age-related illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia.
Presented at the 40th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in Denver, USA, the research was carried out by Naruhisa Yamaki and his team from the Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
The researchers recruited 255 study participants from alcoholism treatment services at Kurihama National Hospital in Yokosuka. Of these, 134 participants were alcoholic patients and 121 were age-matched controls or non-alcoholics, ranging in age from 41 to 85 years old.
The team collected DNA samples from each participant as well as information on their drinking histories and habits. The results showed that the alcoholic patients had shorter telomeres, the protein caps on the ends of human chromosomes, which are markers of ageing and overall health.
Results of the study suggesting that heavy drinking can cause shorter telomeres and therefore biological ageing at a cellular level.
Alcoholics are already known to be at a greater risk of TD. TD is known to cause neurone impairments such as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Although how exactly TD can cause neural impairments is unclear, it is well known that oxidative stress causes telomere shortening and, thus, it is possible that oxidative stress may also cause neurone death.
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