Article Summary #12

Author Unknown. Morbidly obese 'may have missing genes'. BBC News. 4 Feb 2010

Researchers claim that it is possible that extremely overweight people may be missing some of the same genetic material. Some findings say that obesity can be linked to inheritance, but scientists at Imperial College London found dozens of severely obese people who lacked the same 30 genes. This missing gene could not be found in people of normal weight. The latest study focused on the morbidly obese who have a BMI of more than 40 and have high risk health problems. These people are estimated to be 700,000 in the UK.

The first hint was looking at a group of teens and adults with learning disabilities who were known to be at a high risk for obesity. The researchers found 31 people who had the identical “deletions” in their genetic code, all of whom had a BMI of over 30. Most patients had been normal weight at toddlers, but then became overweight later on in their childhood. The precise function of the missing genes is unclear. Dr. Robin Walters said that the particular set of deletions was rare, and it affects 7 in 1,000 morbidly obese people, but there is likely that other variations will be found. Dr. Sadaf Farooqi from Cambridge University said that “there is still an important public health message about diet and exercise, simply blaming people for their obesity is no longer appropriate.”