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Can a genetic test identify newborns at risk of becoming severely obese of middle age? The researchers say that they invented one and that this could allow interventions in childhood to avoid this fate.
The test examines more than 2 million points in a person 's genetic code, looking for variants that individually increase the risk of a person' s obesity. The researchers drew on previously published data on these variants to create a risk score.
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A high score does not guarantee obesity nor a low score excludes it. But people of average age with scores in the top 10% were 25 times more likely to be severely obese than those in the bottom 10%, scientists said in an article published Thursday by the newspaper. Cell.
The researchers indicated that these two groups were separated by an average weight difference of about 29 pounds.
An analysis showed that the genetic propensity to obesity was starting to have an effect on weight around the age of 3 years. Until about 8 years old, "you could possibly make a difference in children who are born prone to obesity," said study author Dr. Sekar Kathiresan of Massachusetts General Boston Hospital and Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard.
But it will take further research to see if an intervention would be effective, Kathiresan said.
The results for the average age come from a study of about 288,000 people. Overall, risk score research included data from more than 300,000 people of different ages. Severe obesity was defined by a body mass index of 40 or more.
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The results show that genetic inheritance "plays an important role in the weight that one acquires," Kathiresan said. The risk score probably takes into account about half of a person's genetic propensity, he says, and shows similar precision in the prediction of ordinary obesity, defined as a BMI of 30. or more.
Even if one inherits a propensity for obesity, he continues to control his destiny. You are not meant to be obese, but it is very clear that people who have inherited susceptibility must work more weight off. "
Among the study participants with the highest scores, he noted, 17% had a normal weight. Other analyzes show that people who stay lean despite a hereditary propensity to obesity tend to eat better and to do more physical activity than people with a high score who have gotten fatter.
"So you can do something," he says.
Ruth Loos, professor of environmental medicine and public health who did not participate in the study, said the risk score further explains the genetic trend of people than previous studies. But she doubted it would be useful in a doctor's office.
He "will never be a good predictor," said Loos, of Mount Icahn's medical school. Sinai in New York.
She noted that in a predictive scoring test, only 58 of the 371 subjects with a top 10% score were seriously obese. And many other seriously obese people are not among the top 10%, she said.
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Just asking about a family history of obesity would probably work better, she said. The important role of lifestyle in obesity means that a purely genetic predictor will never be perfect, she said.
Kathiresan, a cardiologist, said the risk score is better perceived as an indicator of risk, such as high cholesterol. Most people with high cholesterol do not suffer a heart attack, he said, but they are at a higher risk than others.
Jason Boardman of the University of Colorado at Boulder said that genetic variants could affect body size indirectly, through an impact on lifestyles or other social and behavioral characteristics . Other research suggests that the effect of genes on height depends on the type of social and physical environment in which a person lives, including such factors as access to unhealthy foods , he said in an email.
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