Posted on 04/19/2019 10:38:01 AM PDT by Red Badger
The genes which protect around four million people in the UK from obesity have been discovered following a major research project.
Scientists at Cambridge University say drugs to keep people slim are now a possibility after they identified the handful of genetic factors that prevent overeating.
Medics have known for several years that genes can influence a persons weight.
However, the new study is significant because it reveals in granular detail which variants suppress or encourage appetite.
The research team analysed the genetic profiles of more than half a million volunteers from the UK Biobank.
They found that around six per cent of British people with European ancestry have a particular combination which means they are more likely to avoid putting on weight regardless of their lifestyle.
Published in the journal Cell, the study focused on a gene known as MC4R which was previously identified by the same Cambridge scientists to play a role in appetite by controlling a receptor in the brain called melanocortin 4.
People who had certain variants of MC4R which disrupted this receptor tended to gain weight easily, the study found, while those who had a different combination caused the receptor to stay switched on, enjoying the opposite effect.
Participants with these variants would eat less, which probably explaining their lower weight.
The team found that people with two copies of these particular variants - one in over 1,000 people in the UK - were on average 2.5 kg lighter than people without the variants and had a 50 per cent lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Professors Sadaf Farooqi, who co-led the project, said: This study drives home the fact that genetics plays a major role in why some people are obese - and that some people are fortunate enough to have...
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
So that sounds like a defective repeat, that winds up being helpful.
Interesting.
skinny genes?
Tight genes.
That’s all well and good but it doesn’t really say how it will help anyone who tends to be heavy.
The magic shot or pill once a month that resets us into that mode the lucky few who have these lucky genes will be the real news. I’m not holding my breath this happens in my lifetime.
No, the defective disruption is responsible for people gaining weight.
Anyone who invents that magic pill or shot will probably make Bezos look poor by comparison.
My sister says, “I will not be defined by a doughnut.”
Ya eat less, ya weigh less. It’s that simple!
I agree which also makes me wonder why every drug company and lab isn't working on this. If this cure to obesity could be found in addition to a cure for cancer and other common life threatening diseases; the profits would be unimaginable. Of course the drug companies would then lose money for treating those illnesses and the hospitals would lose money for not having to co-treat them for them as well.
Maybe that's why they are in no rush to find these cures. Maybe the government is telling them to slow down or hold off so people die earlier so Social Security payments can end sooner. Yes, as a matter of fact, I am a cynic.
“Medics have known...”
The tighter the genes, the heavier the patient, and therefore more medics required to lift them into the gurney.
Better yet, it's dramatized on (OTR) "X Minus One" in a half hour show.
skinny genes?
****************
Id wear them.
5.5 pounds doesn't seem to be enough to reduce disease risk by 50%. Maybe this gene has a direct impact on the heart and blood sugar with weight loss just being a side effect.
That's what I put on every Winter, and shed by May, so I guess it's a wash.
were on average...............some more, some less..............
I like X-Minus One and Dim-X and will look it up.
No, that's not what they said.
They said they found an association between certain genetic factors and outcomes like obesity. It's the reporter that substituted "overeating" for "obesity".
need a gene transplant for Rosie and Nadler!
Thanks Red Badger. I can tell right now, I don't have that gene.
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