Sunday, December 1, 2019

Do you feel full all the time?


Image result for person not eating

            The MC4R gene has been studied for over 20 years now by Dr. Sadaf Farooqi. It is commonly known as the gene that signals hunger in the brain, and also common defects of the gene lead to obesity. Researchers were surprised then to see that a new defect has been found in people making them less interested in eating. The receptor usually is on until a person eats and then it turns off, but for these people the receptor always stays on signaling a full stomach to their brains. They have less risk of diabetes and heart disease, but they are not necessarily healthier because they never want to eat. They are thinner than most people because of these qualities.
            Researchers are lately finding many more genes mutating to do the opposite of what they originally mutated into, and though quite rare this mutation could be potentially very harmful to the body because of the lack of nutrients one with this may receive.

Original link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/health/genetics-weight-obesity.html?searchResultPosition=1
Related Link: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/MC4R#

3 comments:

  1. I can't imagine not having the desire to eat. I wonder how they were able to find the gene, considering the gene that signals hunger is already known and studied.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is interesting because sometimes I go through phases where I get full after eating a little amount, or just don't get hungry at all. It's fascinating that your brain can just turn off the receptor that signals hunger.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm very concerned to read about this mutation, since there is such high levels of eating disorders at the moment. Could this or similar mutations be involved with that statistic?

    ReplyDelete