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February 20th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda SUNDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) — A new animal study suggests
that a genetic mutation could put certain people at higher risk for
becoming obese if they eat high-fat diets.
At the moment, the practical uses of the research seem to be limited,
but physicians could conceivably test people for the mutation and
recommend that they avoid certain kinds of diets, said study co-author Dr.
Gozoh Tsujimoto, a professor at Kyoto University’s department of genomic
drug discovery science in Japan. It may also be possible, Tsujimoto said,
to eventually give people drugs to combat the effects of the mutation.
If that happens, there would be “a new avenue for personalized health
care,” Tsujimoto said.
Scientists have been busy studying genetic links to obesity that could
make some people more prone to gain extra weight. Two-thirds of Americans
are either overweight or obese, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention estimates. Excess pounds contribute to a variety of diseases,
including heart disease and cancer.
In the new study, researchers looked at the component of the body’s
internal communication system that plays a role in the regulation of
appetite and the production of fat cells.
The investigators found that mice that didn’t have the component were
10 percent fatter than other mice when all were fed a high-fat diet. Mice
without the component also developed higher intolerance to glucose.
Research conducted in animals does not always translate into humans,
and much more research is needed. However, the researchers found that
Europeans with the genetic mutation, known as GPR120, were more likely to
be obese.
“Our study for the first time demonstrated the gene responsible for
diet-induced obesity,” Tsujimoto said.
According to Tsujimoto, more than 3 percent of Europeans have the
trait. The next step for researchers is to study its prevalence in
Japanese, Korean and Chinese people.
What can be done with the knowledge from the study?
Tsujimoto said physicians could advise people with the trait to avoid
high-fat diets. A test is available to detect the trait and it costs about
$200 in Japan, Tsujimoto said.
While medications could potentially be developed that would reverse the
effects of the genetic trait, there are no such drugs now, Tsujimoto
added.
Ruth Loos, director of Genetics of Obesity and Related Metabolic Traits
at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said “these findings
provide another piece of what turns out to be the very large puzzle that
describes the causes of obesity.”
Consistent findings in mice and humans have put the trait “more firmly
on the obesity map and provides a new starting point for more research
into the function of this gene,” said Loos.
“This is only the beginning of likely many years of research to
disentangle the physiological mechanisms that lie behind the link between
this gene and obesity risk,” she said. “It is only when we understand the
physiology and biology better that one can start thinking of developing a
drug.”
The study appears online Feb. 19 in the journal Nature.
More information
For more on obesity, visit the U.S. National Library of
Medicine.
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