Fox News shares the new discovery that weight-loss surgery can also help your genes. A study in a journal showed that when people had gastric bypass surgery and lost weight their genes expressions changed more. The study showed the genes would change to improve the body’s way of burning fat, storing sugars better, and lowering their risk for diabetes.
A study was done on eight obese women that were to undergo gastric by surgery and sixteen women of normal weight. The study was to provide insight that lifestyle or environmental changes can influence the chemical modifications on genes. Researchers studied two genes that regulates glucose and fat metabolism, PGC-1alpha and PDK4, and found out that before the surgery the obese women had chemical markers that did not allow these two genes to function properly. When the surgery was over the women lost weight and did not have the chemical markers anymore when they were more obese.
The study author mentioned to Fox News that obesity increases lipids in t he blood and cytokines which are markers of inflammation. Those markers are what affects the functions of the body, and can change the chemical markings on DNA, and that makes the muscles burn fat and store sugars incorrectly. When people lose weight, the inflammation and lipids in the blood decrease to allow the muscles to reprogram themselves in order to operate correctly and improve metabolic health. If the women that are obese loose the weight before producing children they can avoid passing on the obese like gene traits to their children.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/259033.php
Its crazy to think that a surgery can have such an effect on the genes behind the processes of obesity and inflammation. Especially reading that just by losing weight before having children certain genes that can be passed down to your children can be effected, it shocks me reading about how strongly environmental factors influence genes!
ReplyDeleteI did not know that after a weight loss surgery that gene expression could change. Very interesting that before surgery on the two women that the metabolizing genes did not function and after surgery did. I guess this is why the success rate of gastric weight loss surgery is high!
ReplyDeleteI always considered that gastric surgery as a last resort, but it now seems that it can bring other benefits than just the initial weight loss. Surprising finding indeed.
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