'Fat' gene found by scientists-- The Times UK

[TexasLawyer]

A fascinating article...

The Times April 13, 2007
'Fat' gene found by scientists

Mark Henderson, Science Editor

A gene that contributes to obesity has been identified for the first time, promising to explain why some people easily put on weight while others with similar lifestyles stay slim.

People who inherit one version of the gene rather than another are 70 per cent more likely to be obese, British scientists have discovered. One in six people has the most vulnerable genetic make-up and weighs an average 3kg more than those with the lowest risk. They also have 15 per cent more body fat.

The findings provide the first robust link between a common gene and obesity, and could eventually lead to new ways of tackling one of the most significant causes of ill health in the developed world. One in four British adults is classified as obese, and half of men and a third of women are overweight.

Obesity is a main cause of heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. An adviser to the Government’s health spending watchdog said recently that the condition was a bigger national danger than smoking, alcohol or poverty.

<snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1647517.ece

[Deep13]

1. Any way found to hunt it down and kill it?

:shrug:

[MADem]

6. Ah, grab your weapons, where do we go to get a huntin' license? NT

[dogday]

8. My thoughts exactly

How do we identify and kill that sucker?

[TexasLawyer]

17. I wish!

[theoldman]

2. We have discussed this before.

Now all of the fat people have an excuse. Strange how people in India, Africa and many other places don't have a fat gene until they move to the US. Evolution does not work this way. I forgot, evolution is just a theory and fat genes come out of thin air.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. That's a shame.

Now we won't be able to innocently mock fat people for being lazy and gluttonous.

:nopity:

[gaspee]

5. see poster above you

[Marnieworld]

4. The gene 'contributes' to obesity and makes it more likely

So people can have this and not have it exacerbated until the US because we have an entirely different way of eating here. If you enter this culture from another one it makes sense that your body could be one way and then changed once you start ingesting all of the processed foods filled with MSG and transfat, processed sugars and refined carbohydrates. Makes sense to me. A + B= C If A is the gene but you need the food culture of US (B) to = C Obesity.

Since it is such a health issue I applaud any research that could uncover its causes or contributing factors. Think of all of the heart disease, strokes, and diabetes that could be prevented with further research. Perhaps this gene discovered did serve an evolutionary purpose but now cannot adjust to the relatively sudden change in diet and activity of the modern person. I'm glad that people are doing this research to help people and don't stop themselves due to not wanting to give "all of the fat people" an excuse.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Not to mention...

that people in third world countries are often under the limit in terms of caloric intake.

The fact is, you take two different people and give them the same diet, and the same amount of exercise, and one's going to be skinny, and the other fat.

Not that there aren't serious problems with the western diet.

[depakid]

18. This is true, but the fact remains

that caloric intake/calories burned is the bottom line. It may be "unfair" that certain people can't eat as much or eat the same kinds of foods as others, but that's the way it is.

If people want to maintain a healthy weight, then they need the proper diet that works for them. Just throwing up one's hands and saying "it's genetic" or "I have the wrong bacteria in my gut" doesn't solve the problem.

[gaspee]

10. you are spot on

And the evolutionary purpose of this gene is very easy to surmise.

People who process calories more efficiently, leading to storage (perhaps with the help of this gene) survive hunger longer. You have to be pretty dumb not to see that.

And to the "lifestyle causes obesity" nimrods who are all over the place already on this thread... well, duh, again. Lifestyle is a part of it, yes. But two people with the same lifestyle have different bodies, go figure.

I kind of like the idea that I'm going to survive a famine longer than most. And I'm not really fat, but I do carry some extra poundage. And I work manual labor. I lift, walk, run and climb dozens of flights of stairs a day while carrying 25-50 pounds and all the "experts" would consider me overweight. I am, but I'm in very good shape. Better than a lot of thin women I know. Goodness knows I could snap most of them like a twig.

Famine 0
Gaspee 1

[supernova]

9. Because you are listing areas

of the world where a steady food supply is not always guaranteed. I'd be skinny too if I starved periodically. It's not a healthy practice either,

[Scout]

14. EVOLUTION has designed us to be able to live on fewer calories during

times of famine, and to easily store those calories as fat in times of plenty.

Let me guess, you aren't a "fat" person. :eyes:

I wonder if they will ever find the rude, insensitive, ignorant bigot gene.

[Deep13]

15. "...rude, insensitive, ignorant bigot gene..."

I think you can find that on a.m. talk radio.

[TexasLawyer]

11. How they found the gene is really interesting

Scientists found it in the course of studying diabetes--

<snip>

The effect of FTO emerged from a key study of the genetic origins of disease funded by the Wellcome Trust known as the Case Control Consortium, in which 2,000 people with type 2 diabetes had their genomes compared to 3,000 healthy controls.

Scientists from Oxford and the University of Exeter first found that certain versions of the FTO gene were more common among people with type 2 diabetes, but that the effect disappeared when the data were adjusted for obesity. This led them to wonder whether FTO really influenced obesity instead, and they followed up their theory in a further 37,000 people.

FTO comes in two varieties, and everyone inherits two copies of the gene. The team found that those who inherit two copies of one variant — 16 per cent of white Europeans — were 70 per cent more likely to be obese than those who inherited two copies of the other variant. The 50 per cent of subjects who inherited one copy of each FTO variant had a 30 per cent higher risk of obesity.

Those in the highest risk group weighed an average of 3kg (7lb) more and those at medium risk were an average of 1.2kg heavier. In each case the extra weight was entirely accounted for by more body fat, not greater muscle or extra height. The results, published in the journal Science, apply to men and women, and to children as young as 7.

[Parche]

12. I Found the Fat Jean

[TexasLawyer]

16. Whoa!

So you did!

[jakem]

13. They had to look between the folds...

OMG, who just said that...