So having high blood sugar doesnât mean that you ate a lot of table sugar and the sugar is now in your bloodstream; it means you ate a lot of carbohydrates (from any source) and the sugar (glucose) is now in your bloodstream. Any digestible carbohydrate can raise blood sugar, although some raise it higher and faster than others.
If a mutation alters junk DNA, it doesnât do any harm because the junk isnât doing us any good to begin with. If our genome was 80 percent functionalâthe figure batted around when the ENCODE project results first came outâthen we should be extinct.
Generally, ionizing radiation are high energy waves and are all harmful, even in low amounts, such as gamma rays, x-rays, and ultraviolet waves. These types of radiation cause ionization of atoms and molecules, leading to destruction of the molecules in cells and DNA. If DNA is destroyed in a cell, that cell can be cancerous. Lower energy waves, such as visible light, infrared radiation, and radio waves are not harmful (again, except in extreme cases). Exposure to high levels of visible or infrared radiation (for example from a powerful laser) can cause blindness and can burn the skin. Microwaves are a low energy wave that are in fact fairly harmful. Exposure to intense microwaves can cause intense heating of the tissue, potentially causing severe burning.