The People's Pharmacy® with Joe and Terry Graedon

687 Genetic Medicine - Obesogens

Radio Shows July 5, 2008

The field of genetic medicine has been evolving rapidly. We all know our DNA determines certain characteristics such as our eye color, hair texture and height. It is also important in considering our risk for certain conditions such as Huntington’s disease or cystic fibrosis. Now that the genome can be analyzed, how will that affect medicine in the 21st century?

One area in which genes and the environment interact is weight. The rates of obesity are increasing worldwide. What factors may be contributing? One scientist suggests that contaminants in plastic water pipes might be part of the problem.

Guests: James Evans, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Cancer Genetics Services and the Bryson Program in Human Genetics, and Clinical Associate Professor in the departments of genetics and medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His commentary on “Health Care in the Age of Genetic Medicine” was published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The photo is of Dr. Evans.

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, Professor in the Departments of Developmental and Cell Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, at the University of California at Irvine, CA. His article on environmental obesogens as emerging factors in the obesity crisis was published in Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders.

Tags: BRCA1, breast cancer, endocrine disrupter, genetic medicine, genome, pharmacogenomics, prostate cancer, tributyltin

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