Thursday, November 12, 2015

Your DNA May Explain High-Calorie Food Cravings



This is a a very interesting article which places emphasis on obesity or consuming a high calorie diet and its relation to ones DNA. Genetic variants were identified which the brains response to high calorie foods. It was very intriguing the fact that the reason for the FTO variant had a higher rate of obesity was because of dopamine signals in the brain which triggered them to crave junk food, which leads to these people consuming a poor diet. The researchers did indicate that each individual may respond differently in terms of treatment regarding these genetic variants. So the idea here is that there has to be a drug created that inhibits these variants effective enough to help the vast majority of the population. My guess would be to genetically alter drugs to act as an antagonist and in a way reduce the craving of any given person. But, more importantly these drugs most certainly should be tested on other animals before trying to treat them on humans.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/11/05/your-dna-may-explain-high-calorie-food-cravings

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/FTO

1 comment:

  1. Good Blog. I will have to check out the original article and will now have a new excuse for why I am so chubby. I wouldn't mind maybe working with the researchers one day to help cure obesity in the US.

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