Obesity isn’t simply a matter of food and exercise: it may be in your genetic code, according to new research.
“The causes of obesity are very complex and, in most cases, a combination of many factors. In this study, however, we have found a clear genetic trigger for obesity,” says Dr. Mattia Frontini, lead author of the study, senior investigator at the British Heart Foundation and associate professor of Cell Biology at the University of California, in an email. University of Exeter, in the United Kingdom.
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database and research resource that tracks people long-term, according to the study published Thursday in the academic journal Med. The researchers compared data from people with two defective copies of a specific gene (SMIM1) with those who did not have the two defective copies.
According to the study, women with the genetic mutation weighed 4.6 kilos more and men with the variant weighed 2.4 kilos more.
Defective copies of the SMIM1 gene cause decreased thyroid function and lower energy expenditure, according to Frontini, “which means that, given the same food intake, less energy is used and this excess is stored as fat.”
Not only is the correlation significant, but this study identifies a specific genetic mutation, which doesn’t always happen in research, said Dr. Philipp Scherer, director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. who did not participate in the study.
“This is an exciting study because it puts a new gene on the map,” Scherer said. “This is a real gene, and not just a genomic locus with a mutation somewhere that we don’t understand… We believe we are looking at a gene that we can continue to study.”
This genetic finding is “quite rare”
This particular genetic finding does not apply to a large population of people with obesity – only about 1 in 5,000 people have this genetic makeup, Frontini said.
“It’s pretty rare, but if you multiply it by a population of 10 or 15 million, there are quite a few people who could be walking around with that mutation and maybe weren’t fully aware that there is a genetic explanation for their struggle with obesity,” Scherer said.
According to Frontini, thyroid dysfunction is common, affecting almost 2% of the UK population. And thyroid dysfunction is regularly treated with a relatively affordable medication, Frontini said.
The next step of the research is to find out if people with the SMIM1 mutation are eligible to treat their thyroid with medication, he added.
“If so, we plan to conduct a randomized clinical trial to determine if they would benefit from the treatment,” Frontini explained. “The hope is that they will and we can improve their quality of life using a cheap and safe treatment.”
The best approach in the meantime
Weight is not just a matter of willpower or laziness. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, body size and shape come certain by many factors, some of which you have control over and others you don’t.
These factors include lifestyle habits, the amount of sleep, medications, health problems, where you live and work, and genetics, according to the Institute.
Genetic factors and possible treatments are still being investigated, but Scherer says the best current strategy for medical treatment of obesity is GLP-1 medication.
Severely restrictive diets are not the solution, says Brooke Alpert, a registered dietitian and author of “The Diet Detox: Why Your Diet Is Making You Fat and What to Do About It,” in a previous CNN article.
Demonizing foods too much can make you crave them more, and then the guilt you feel when you give in can lead to a cycle of fluctuating between restricting and bingeing, she added.
If you want to make changes to your lifestyle, it’s best to try a gradual, sustainable approach while maintaining a healthy relationship with food, said Emily Feig, a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, in the same CNN report.
Taken from CNN
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