Certain people just may be destined to be obese, based on the discovery of six additional genetic variants tied to people with higher body mass index, a new study says.
The study by an international consortium, published online Dec. 14 in Nature Genetics, adds to previous research that linked two other genetic variants to obesity. Each individual known variant had a small but cumulative effect on a person's BMI, a ratio of weight to height. In all, it added up to an average of 10 pounds in those with most of the variants, compared to those with the fewest. However, Hirschhorn said the researchers may have found only a handful of possibly hundreds of genetic regions that made such small contributions to one's weight, and more studies would be needed to uncover them all.
The study by an international consortium, published online Dec. 14 in Nature Genetics, adds to previous research that linked two other genetic variants to obesity. Each individual known variant had a small but cumulative effect on a person's BMI, a ratio of weight to height. In all, it added up to an average of 10 pounds in those with most of the variants, compared to those with the fewest. However, Hirschhorn said the researchers may have found only a handful of possibly hundreds of genetic regions that made such small contributions to one's weight, and more studies would be needed to uncover them all.
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