How are childhood trauma and genetics linked to risk of being obese?

New research has found associations between genetics, obesity, and childhood trauma, linking social health determinants, genetics, and disease. The new study focuses on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which are traumatic and unsafe events that children endure by the age of 18. 

    According to the research findings of the 16,000 participants, those who had experienced one or more types of ACE were more likely to become obese adults. Those who experienced four or more ACEs were more than twice as likely to become severely obese. There was a steady increase in BMI for each ACE a person experienced, which indicates a strong relation between obesity and ACE. 

    Combination of genetics, environmental factors such as poverty and abuse, food insecurity, and poor relationships with parental guardians can increase this risk. Obesity can increase the chance for multiple health problems such as cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes. Losing weight can help to decrease the chances of being affected by these health issues. 

Related article

Discovery in the Genetics of Happiness

Happiness is said to be a fleeting thing, but thanks to researcher Meike Bartel, the scientific community is one step closer to understanding just how happiness is expressed in the first place. By sampling almost 300,000 people, Bartel took a sample of each subject's DNA and measured their well-being (self reported measure of life satisfaction and mental health). From this, she was able to determine important information about the link between genetics and happiness, including variants for happiness, depression, and areas on the genome linked to happiness.

Bartel stressed the fact that even though research has found a link between a subject's well-being and their genetic make up, lurking variables such as environmental factors play a major role in the overall well-being of a person. It is important to understand that a subject that does not exhibiting this variation can still be as happy as a person that does, but those with it are more prone to optimistic bias.

Meike Bartels speaking in Dubai about the 'Science of Happiness'

A journal I found on the subject on the National Institute of Health's website entitled "Genes, Economics, and Happiness", suggested that happiness was linked to a longer 5-HTTLPR allele, a serotonin transporter gene. Subjects that had a longer 5-HTT allele had a tendency to report a higher well-being that those that had shorter ones. Additionally, subject's with the shorter allele tended to succumb to stress depression more frequently. In both this journal and Bartel's journal article, the inconsistency of the experiments for this discovery was noted, as later experiments yielded varying results in regards to allele length and the effects on well-being. The topic would be interesting to explore further, as the link between the two variables could be significant.

An important question that was raised during this research is whether this genetic link to happiness could be used to genetically alter a person to have a happier predisposition. Unfortunately, the answer is no... for now anyway. Bartel explains that there are several thousand gene variants responsible for happiness, and altering that much DNA would be too great a task. For now, her focus is on the effects the environment has on genes.

CNBC "Happiness might Well be Genetic"