Is obesity in our heads?

Seema Singh — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:08:00 GMT

Don't get this wrong. This doesn't mean if one wants to reduce obesity, all one has to do is to make up one's mind to eat less, eat healthy, exercise, etc.

On the contrary, a new research in today's issue of Nature Genetics suggests that the genes, six of them, that predispose people to obesity act in the brain. So, it's quite likely that the overweight folks are simply hardwired to overeat!

Well, this also implies we better be kind in our reaction to obese people, which is often unforgiving, assuming this group is lacking in discipline. "If you just want to think about how you react to these people who are obese, they can just be wired differently, so you have to be respectful of that," said Goncalo Abecasis, a co-author from the University of Michigan, School of Public Health.

In addition to the six new genes, the study also confirmed the role of two other genes previously associated with obesity. And five of the six genes are shown to impact the brain function, rather than metabolic functions, such as fat storage and sugar metabolism.

The brain, according to the lead author Cristen Willer, U-M, has two main functions related to weight: appetite control and the regulation of one's total energy balance (whether you burn more calories or conserve more energy).

It's believed that the new findings could help scientists decide afresh which new drugs to develop and where to make them act. This also means obesity is lot more about biology than previously thought, and the anti-obesity road is uphill since major efforts are required to overcome biology.

The research was carried out by an international team of researchers from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, the US National Institutes of Health and the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits consortium, who analyzed 32,387 people of European ancestry and later confirmed their results in additional 50,000 people.

Just for context and if you aren't aware, India has officially accepted the obesity epidemic and on November 26 it laid down new guidelines with leaner fitness measures. The health ministry has reduced the diagnostic cut-offs for body mass index to 23 kg/m2 (as against the global 25 kg/m2). So, anyone with a BMI of above 23 will be considered overweight!

"The guidelines - with revised statistics - will benefit the additional 15-20 per cent (60-80 million) of the Indian population who can now be clinically termed obese under the revised measurement."

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Lab Rats : BMI

Is obesity in our heads?