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People with MC4R mutations tend to be obese. Researchers have recorded as many as 300 mutations in this gene, and they are the most common single-gene cause of obesity. Mutations in the gene account for 6 percent of children with severe obesity.
The mutations destroy satiety, the feeling of fullness after a meal, Dr. Farooqi and her colleagues have found.
Normally, when people eat a meal, the gene is switched on and sends a signal telling people they are full. Then the gene turns itself off. But some people carry a rare mutation in MC4R that prevents the gene from working.
As a result, their bodies never get the signal that they have eaten enough. They always feel hungry and often are overweight. Their risk of diabetes and heart disease is 50 percent higher than those without the mutation.
That's right folks...apparently when many people feel full after eating just a little the reason is not because of sheer willpower and being able to push themselves away from the table. I hope we're getting further away from constantly slamming overweight people for being weak when at least a portion of "control" is genetic.
People with MC4R mutations tend to be obese. Researchers have recorded as many as 300 mutations in this gene, and they are the most common single-gene cause of obesity. Mutations in the gene account for 6 percent of children with severe obesity.
The mutations destroy satiety, the feeling of fullness after a meal, Dr. Farooqi and her colleagues have found.
Normally, when people eat a meal, the gene is switched on and sends a signal telling people they are full. Then the gene turns itself off. But some people carry a rare mutation in MC4R that prevents the gene from working.
As a result, their bodies never get the signal that they have eaten enough. They always feel hungry and often are overweight. Their risk of diabetes and heart disease is 50 percent higher than those without the mutation.
That's right folks...apparently when many people feel full after eating just a little the reason is not because of sheer willpower and being able to push themselves away from the table. I hope we're getting further away from constantly slamming overweight people for being weak when at least a portion of "control" is genetic.
According to the research, MC4R mutations are found in 1-6% of severely clinically obese children-- that number flucates based on ethnic group. That's not a hugely signficant number, imo. I'm speaking as someone who weighed 175 pounds at 12 and underwent RNY at nearly 260 pounds as an adult. While I don't discount genetic factors in obesity, environmental factors have a greater impact. Again my opinion.
Yes, a portion of it is genetic, but how does that explain the rising rate of obesity in recent times? There is much more to it than genetics.
You do have to have some willpower, unfortunately.
Right .. Those without the gene have a lot more food they have to avoid these days... The others don't even notice the food because they don't feel hungry.
Right .. Those without the gene have a lot more food they have to avoid these days... The others don't even notice the food because they don't feel hungry.
My question was about the increase in obesity in the past few decades---is the obesity gene more prevalent than it was decades ago? Because I don't think that's how genes work.
If there is an obesity gene, that gene has always been around, yet obesity is increasing.
My question was about the increase in obesity in the past few decades---is the obesity gene more prevalent than it was decades ago? Because I don't think that's how genes work.
If there is an obesity gene, that gene has always been around, yet obesity is increasing.
That is a great question. Another thing I think that is increasing overall obesity is when obese parents have children they are passing their diets down to them.
My question was about the increase in obesity in the past few decades---is the obesity gene more prevalent than it was decades ago? Because I don't think that's how genes work.
If there is an obesity gene, that gene has always been around, yet obesity is increasing.
It's possible more obese mothers are able to safely give birth these days, and they have more children than obese mothers did in the past, because c-sections are safer than they used to be.
People with MC4R mutations tend to be obese. Researchers have recorded as many as 300 mutations in this gene, and they are the most common single-gene cause of obesity. Mutations in the gene account for 6 percent of children with severe obesity.
The mutations destroy satiety, the feeling of fullness after a meal, Dr. Farooqi and her colleagues have found.
Normally, when people eat a meal, the gene is switched on and sends a signal telling people they are full. Then the gene turns itself off. But some people carry a rare mutation in MC4R that prevents the gene from working.
As a result, their bodies never get the signal that they have eaten enough. They always feel hungry and often are overweight. Their risk of diabetes and heart disease is 50 percent higher than those without the mutation.
That's right folks...apparently when many people feel full after eating just a little the reason is not because of sheer willpower and being able to push themselves away from the table. I hope we're getting further away from constantly slamming overweight people for being weak when at least a portion of "control" is genetic.
You said it yourself, obese people are lacking in will-power. Blaming it on "genetics", is just a cop-out, a weak attempt at excusing their indulgent excesses.
You said it yourself, obese people are lacking in will-power. Blaming it on "genetics", is just a cop-out, a weak attempt at excusing their indulgent excesses.
Naah - it's the skinny people who think they are so because of their outstanding willpower though they've rarely ever felt hungry, hence they don't have the need to ever test their willpower.
Sometimes I wonder at the extent to which the overweight are reviled - even as their percentages increase to become "normative". Is everyone just afraid?
It's my personal belief that the rising rates in obesity have a lot to do with the amount of growth hormones, steroids, and other chemicals we have been ingesting in our food in the last 20-30 years.
Perrine told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith that only recently the American Medical Association has come out in support of the idea that these obesogens play a significant role in our national obesity crisis.
Perrine's book, "New American Diet," addresses this correlation, and gives guidelines on how you can change your diet to eliminate obesogens. In interviewing test subjects who tried the New American Diet, Perrine said, people reported an average weight loss of 15 pounds over two weeks."
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