Twin Study Results – Exercise is good for you!
Exercise = benefits! It’s amazing what we can learn from science.
Well, it’s a little more interesting than that. Turns out, there is evidence to show an association between exercise and slower aging. In a 10-year study of a bunch of British twins, researchers mapped markers in the white blood cell something called telomeres – whatever they are, they are indicative of cell break-down leading to symptoms of age.
Here’s what happened: the twin who exercised more had telomeres of a person 5 – 9 years younger than the non-exercising twin! That’s some good age-reversal.
2/27/08 Podcast
Download the February 27, 2008 podcast.
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Included in this podcast is Crissi’s predictive dream (maybe?), a twin study sheds light on exercise and aging cells, what it will be like to watch each other grow older, changing our habits and characteristics based on seeing them in each other, and we answer Anna’s question about how seeing each other in the flesh messes with our own mental self-images.
Crissi’s random distraction recommendation: I think these are over. Unless they have something to do with twins.
Theme music is “These Photographs” by Joshua Radin.
Political Opinions and Genetics
In response to a journal article published in the New Scientist, writer Joshua Hill wrote his own piece for the Canada Free Press. Here’s the summary:
New Scientist: “These [political] views are deep-seated and built into our brains. Trying to persuade someone not to be liberal is like trying to persuade someone not to have brown eyes. We have to rethink persuasion,” as stated by John Alford, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston, Texas. A questionnaire/study of 30,000 twins (both fraternal and identical) showed that identical twins were more likely to answer political questions the same than fraternal twins. Therefore, there is a genetic link to political views.
Canada Free Press: “There’s no such thing as a gene for disliking hippies,” as stated by Frank Sulloway, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Other studies reveal that political views are more influenced by personality than genes. However, major personality groups are inherited genetically, and therefore create the appearance of a direct genetic link between genes and political opinions.
2/20/08 Podcast
Download the February 20, 2008 podcast.
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Included in this podcast is how the Spiderwick Chronicles treats twinhood, using each other as a make-over mirror, YouTube videos featuring twins (see previous post), genetic influences in politics (see next post) more discussion about telling fraternal twins apart from identical twins, and we answer listener Lorine’s question about the bossy one.
Crissi’s random distraction recommendation: None. Admit it, you don’t miss it.
Theme music is “These Photographs” by Joshua Radin.
YouTube gives Twins a forum… for good or for bad
We considered doing videos for YouTube, but the fact that we live 639 miles apart and are camera shy stopped us. But nothing could stop these twinsets.
These guys love the Olsen twins’ hit song “Identical Twins”. A classic.
What we find interesting in this video is how you can clearly see that the personalities of these 3 year old twins are already divergent, and one seems to speak for both. This was certainly the case for us growing up – Cassi was mostly the spokesperson.
These twins are still young… they think being an identical twin sucks. They’ll learn. But again, you can see that Lauren mainly speaks for both.
Why do parents always make their twins hug?
Here, the parents give a little timeline on how they discovered if their twin girls were identical or fraternal.
2/12/08 Podcast
Download the February 12, 2008 podcast.
(Hover over link to pop up the audio player.)
Included in this podcast is an update on the Utah-based flu epidemic, a Valentine’s Day fondue party to come, a review of Strange Wilderness (hint: it’s not 5 stars), the twin baby boom – especially in Hollywood, and we answer listener Sharon’s question about twins as alter egos.
Crissi’s random distraction recommendation: Shockwave and BigFishGames.
Theme music is “These Photographs” by Joshua Radin.
2/5/08 Podcast
Due to scheduling conflicts and flu-like illnesses, we have cancelled this week’s podcast. Sorry for the sore disappointment! We’ll be back next week, though, for sure.
Identical Twins and Leukemia
We aren’t clear on the details of this study (some of it’s over our heads), but the situation of a pair of English identical twins is advancing the scientific knowledge of the development of leukemia.
Olivia Murphy was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 2 years old, and yet her genetic duplicate, Isabella, has been healthy since birth. After chemotherapy and remission, the parents of these identical twins agreed to allow regular blood tests for both girls as part of a research study to determine how the cancer cells developed. Because of this research, scientists have been able to prove the existence of leukemia stem cells.
From the article: “All cancers are caused by genetic mutations which cause cells to divide and multiply uncontrollably. Leukaemia is caused by two different mutations – one which occurs in the womb, the other after birth… both girls had the first mutation, but only Olivia had the second.”
Read more to see if you can get the study more than we do. However, we do know that twin studies such as this have aided in advancing many types of scientific understanding – physical and psychological.
