An exciting new batch of studies is showing that antioxidants can help protect against thymine dimers and consequently reduce your risk of getting skin cancer. Research has found that the powerful antioxidants Vitamins C and E can both reduce the severity of sunburns and significantly reduce the incidence of thymine dimers. Green tea has also been shown to have protective qualities.To protect yourself from skin cancer, it might help if you understand a bit about thymine dimers and their role in causing cancerous lesions.

Thymine is a base pair that forms some of the blocks in the “ladder,” or double-helix structure, of everyone’s DNA. When thymines are exposed to sunlight, they bind together and become thymine dimers (they’re called “dimers” because there are two thymines: “di” is the latin prefix  for “double”).

When this happens, your body responds with a cellular process that splits up the dimers so they become two separate thymines again. The problem is, each time the thymines are split there’s a chance that a mutation will occur–and some mutations can be cancerous.

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Older men who were big during their 20s face an increased risk of suffering from atrial fibrillation, or abnormal heart rhythm. New research from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, reveals that height and weight are both factors.

The results are being published in the latest issue of the European Heart Journal.

The study was initiated in 1970. Over 7,000 men living in Gothenburg aged between 45 and 55 were examined and asked questions about their lifestyle. The subjects were asked to state their weight at the age of 20. The research material has now been compared with the National Patient Register.

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