Saturday, April 20, 2019

Obesity Caused by Genetic Mutation


A result of a couple studies investigated that weight control is related to genetics and not will power as must of us believe. The study was realized on people that have been thin their entire life. Their opinion on the subject was that they “did not care much about food”. These individuals only ate small amounts of food. The gene MC4R was used by Dr. Sadaf Farooqi, professor of metabolism and medicine at the University of Cambridge and Nick Wareham, and epidemiologist at the same university. Researchers from Britain found that some people carry a “genetic alteration” that mutes appetite. This includes a low chance of getting heart disease or diabetes. The study used data from the U.K biobank. These included half million people aged 40-69; their DNA samples and medical records was helpful information that enable researchers to track their health. The same data was used for a second study, which was used to make predictions as early as childhood. According to the researchers, there are biological reasons why some people struggle with overweight and others do not. This is related more towards appetite and not metabolism.


Image result for genetic mutation

Obesity can be a cause of a genetic mutation, but personally I think many of the individuals who suffer from obesity is because they were introduced to junk food in their early childhood usually from parents. Lack of physical activity plays an important role as well, technology keeps the kids and adults entertained. Another cause could be stress in adults due to family issues or work.

3 comments:

  1. Wow this is super interesting. I have always fallen into the boat of not caring that much about food, and it's interesting to see what gene it's actually linked too!

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  2. This is an interesting study because I have always believed that weight gain was because of environmental factors. Does metabolism not cause any fluctuation on weight at all? From my personal research throughout the years, I found that gaining weight was from because of someone having slow metabolism.

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  3. Although obesity can cause individuals at any age to gain weight, I also think that kids who don't practice a healthy diet at an early age have a higher possibility to be obese. Its interesting to know that not only having an unhealthy life style causes this condition, but also a genetic background does too.

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