United States: These are some of the new research findings that imply that obesity is not a direct result of the food we take or the level of our physical activity, but genetics have a higher contribution.
More about the Findings
According to the lead study author, Dr. Mattia Frontini, British Heart Foundation senior fellow and an associate professor in cellular biology at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, “Obesity’s causes are very complex and in the majority of cases, the combination of many factors. In this study, however, we found a clear genetic trigger for obesity,” as CNN Health reported.
Researchers applied data from the UK Biobank, which is a large biomedical database and long-term research resource, based on a study published in the Med journal on Thursday.
They compared data of individuals who had the two detrimental copies of the particular gene SMIM1 to those who did not have it.
Compared to the BMI of women who did not carry the gene mutation, women with the gene mutation weighed an extra 6.4 kilograms (10. 14 pounds), and men with that variant weighed an additional 2.4 kilograms (5.29 pounds), as the given study done by researchers.
A decrement in the functioning could be caused by the faulty copies of the SMIMI gene in the thyroid and declining energy expenditure, as Rontini said, “which means that given the same food intake, less energy is used and this excess is stored as fat,” CNN Health reported.
Moreover, as the correlation is important, the study also pointed to a specific gene mutation, which, however, is not always a case in research, as Dr. Philipp Scherer, director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, mentioned. He was not a part of the study.
Scherer added, “It is an exciting study in that it puts a new gene on the map,” and, “It’s an actual gene, rather than just a genomic locus with a mutation somewhere where we don’t understand. … We think we’re looking at a gene here that we can further study.”
Rare Genetic Code in the Population
According to Frontini, the specific gene is rare among those with obesity, with only one in 5,000 people having this genetic makeup.
According to Scherer, “That’s pretty rare, but you multiply that to a population of 10 (million), 15 million, and there are quite a few people out there that would walk around with that mutation and maybe weren’t fully aware of the fact that there is a genetic explanation for their struggle with obesity,” as CNN health reported.
Thyroid dysfunction affects about one to two percent of the UK population, Frontini stated. Thyroid issues can be treated with affordable medication.
As the next step, the researchers plan to investigate whether people with the SMIM1 mutation qualify for thyroid treatment according to the World Health Organization’s criteria.
Frontini concluded, “If they do, we plan to conduct a randomized clinical trial to determine if they would benefit from the treatment,” and, “The hope is that they will, and we can improve their quality of life using a cheap, safe treatment.”