The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Young male smokers may raise obesity risk in their future sons Posted: 02 Apr 2014 07:28 AM PDT The scientists said the findings, part of ongoing work in a larger "Children of the 90s" study, could indicate that exposure to tobacco smoke before the start of puberty in men may lead to metabolic changes in the next generation. "This discovery of transgenerational effects has big implications for research into the current rise in obesity and the evaluation of preventative measures," said Marcus Pembrey, a professor of genetics at University College London, who led the study and presented its findings at a briefing today. Smoking rates in Britain and some other parts of Europe are on the decline, but worldwide, almost one billion men smoke – about 35% of men in developed countries and 50 percent in developing ones, according to the World Health Organisation. While previous studies in animals and in people have found some transgenerational health impacts, the evidence so far is limited. It points, however, to epigenetics – a process where lifestyle and environmental factors can turn certain genes on or off – having an effect on the health of descendants. Pembrey said his team's research was prompted in part by signals from earlier Swedish studies that linked how plentiful a paternal ancestor's food supply was in mid childhood with future death rates in grandchildren. For the new study, published in the European Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers had access to detailed lifestyle, genetic and other health data from 9,886 fathers. Of these, 5,376, or 54%, were smokers at some time and of those, 166, or 3%, said they had started smoking regularly before the age of 11. Looking at the next generation, the team found that at age 13, 15 and 17, the sons of men who started smoking before 11 had the highest Body Mass Index (BMI) scores compared with the sons of men who had started smoking later or who had never smoked. "These boys had markedly higher levels of fat mass – ranging from an extra 5kg to 10kg between ages 13 and 17," the study said. Although it was there, the effect was not seen to the same degree in daughters. External experts not involved with the research were more guarded about drawing firm conclusions from its findings. Graham Burdge, an expert in human nutrition at the University of Southampton said the findings "may potentially provide new insights into factors that may influence development of obesity in childhood". "However, the findings only show associations and cannot be interpreted as indicating that paternal smoking at an early age causes obesity in their sons," he added. Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, said the findings were intriguing and rare. "The data are persuasive but not yet definitive as we need to confirm the same smoking related epigenetics changes in the kids' DNA," he said. – Reuters, April 2, 2014. |
| Living with the killer next door, Rwandans grapple with reconciliation Posted: 01 Apr 2014 09:36 PM PDT But in Rwanda, where 20 years ago genocide claimed over 800,000 lives, the difference is that Kazigwemo murdered his neighbours – relatives of his wife's weaving partner and next-door neighbour in a "reconciliation village", where free housing comes at the price of forgiveness. "It was hard living here at the beginning, as this woman's husband helped to kill my family," says Cecile Mukagasana, as she sits on a porch tying colourful string around grass to make coiled baskets for curious tourists. Before 1994, different groups in Rwanda lived relatively peacefully together for much of the time and intermarriages were not uncommon. But then "the government was teaching the Hutu that the Tutsis were colonising them again, so we must kill them and take their property," Kazigwemo said. "They gave us guns and trained us to go and kill," he added, although his mob "used machetes and spears" to slaughter seven people. "We didn't feel guilty. We were proud of it as the government was wanting us to do this, so we did it again." In the second attack, Kazigwemo's gang – among them "people who were sharp at killing" – hacked two of Cecile's relatives to death. Kazigwemo is one of around two million people tried over 10 years by the traditional "gacaca" court system, set up in the wake of the genocide as traditional courts were overloaded. He had his sentence reduced after admitting to the killings and apologising for them. "Before I apologised I didn't have peace in my heart, sometimes when I was standing somewhere, I would see the faces of those I killed in my eyes," he said. "Now I don't see them anymore." Bitter pill But Dieudonne Gahizi-Ganza, the founder of Best Hope Rwanda that offers counselling to victims of rape, their children, and those of the killers, says that the gacaca trials aren't enough. "Gacaca did a lot to bring about justice and also handle the cases of perpetrators, but we also need reconciliation," he said. "After the genocide, we had more than 300,000 orphans and 500,000 widows," says Jean-Baptiste Habyarimana, Executive Secretary of the government's Peace and Reconciliation Commission. "To recover, for them, it is not so easy", he said. For Vestine Mukandahiro, who lives in one of the many mud-baked lanes lined by banana trees on the outskirts of Kigali, reconciling with a daughter born of rape took years. Aged 13, Vestine decided that she couldn't kill herself or the baby, but "after she was born, I thought I couldn't be with my own daughter as I'd look at her face and she'd remind me of the rape," she said. Vestine fled the family home as attackers hacked her entire family minus her two- and four-year old youngest siblings to death, only to stumble across her rapist in a field. She said people treated her "like a prostitute" bringing "the child of a curse" into the community. Reconciliation programmes focusing on grassroots and group counselling have lifted such widespread or overt stigma, but the double-edged sword of speaking out is that those born years after the genocide have been forced to relive it. "Trauma cases – it's something that can be transmitted from one generation to the next", said Gahizi-Ganza. A country still in mourning As the country prepares to mark 20 years since the start of the 100-day massacre on April 7, a cloud of fear and sadness still hangs over Rwanda, and a certain stoicism prevails at all times. Questions of ethnicity are no longer allowed or included on identity cards. The horrors of 1994 can now only be referred to as The Genocide Against The Tutsi – a term that ignores the massacre of moderate Hutus and obscures a far from bloodless advance to power by rebel forces led by Rwanda's now President Paul Kagame. "We don't talk about ethnicity. We only talk about our past," said 19-year old Yvette. The only leisure activities Yvette can list are after-school clubs warning against AIDS and drugs and the "Never Again Club", where she and her peers dissect the genocide. Yvette wants to grow up to be a role model in the community, to show that she can be useful and to avoid more friction. "With my generation, we must make a big effort to make sure that what happened never happens again," she said. – AFP, April 2, 2014. |
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