Even with a healthy lifestyle, genes are the ___1___ in whether someone gets a chronic illness, such as heart disease. Right? Well, maybe not. A new study suggests that we might be able to exercise some control over our ___2___—just by lifting a fork.

People with the genetic variant 9p21 have an increased risk for heart disease—one of the most common killers worldwide.

Researchers collected genetic and dietary information from more than 8,000 people of various ethnicities, as well as data from 20,000 Finish subjects. People who had the genetic variant, but who ate a diet rich in fruits, raw vegetables and nuts, ended up on average with a heart attack risk close to people who don't have this genetic ___3___. While those with the trait who did not follow such a ___4___ diet had as much as twice the chance of having a heart attack. [Ron Do et al., "The Effect of Chromosome 9p21 Variants on Cardiovascular Disease May Be Modified by Dietary Intake: Evidence from a Case/Control and a Prospective Study," in Public Library of Science Medicine, link to come]

So a healthful diet might actually be changing the expression of the gene, in effect turning it off. Which suggests that there might be more diet-gene ___5___ than you can shake a carrot stick at.

【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
deciding factor genetic destiny propensity prudent interactions
即使生活習(xí)慣良好也不一定能擺脫心臟病等慢性疾病的困擾，因?yàn)榛虿攀菦Q定性因素。真的是這樣么？其實(shí)不一定。一項(xiàng)新的研究表明，運(yùn)動能夠?qū)κ芑蜃笥业募膊∮兴刂啤恫嬉涣嗑湍茏嘈А?攜帶基因變體9p21的人罹患心臟病的幾率比較高，而心臟病本身就是全球多發(fā)病癥。 研究人員收集了8000多人的基因及飲食信息，這8000多人來自不同的種族。此外研究人員還收集了20000死亡人員的相同信息。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，攜帶該變異基因但飲食中水果、蔬菜、堅(jiān)果豐富的人死于心臟病的幾率和未攜帶該基因的人的病發(fā)幾率差不多。而攜帶該基因缺沒有如此飲食規(guī)律的人的發(fā)病幾率提高到兩倍。 由此可見，健康飲食可能會改變基因表達(dá)，或抑制其表達(dá)。貌似起作用的飲食基因可不是一個兩個，蘿卜棒恐怕是扔不過來咯~