Researchers Discover Genetic Mutation Tied To Low Appetite And Develop Genetic Risk Score For Obesity.

reports researchers found in one study that some “people carry a genetic alteration [in the MC4R gene] that mutes appetite,” which “also greatly reduces their chances of getting diabetes or heart disease.” In another study using the same data as the first, researchers developed “a genetic risk score for obesity” that “can help predict, as early as childhood, who is at high risk for a lifetime of obesity and who is not.” Both studies were published in Cell. The AP (4/18, Ritter) reports that in the second study, the researchers developed a test that “examines more than 2 million spots in a person’s genetic code, seeking variants that individually nudge a person’s obesity risk up by a tiny amount.” The researchers found that “middle-aged people with scores in the top 10 percent were 25 times as likely to be severely obese as those in the bottom 10 percent,” and that “those two groups were separated by an average weight difference of about 29 pounds (13 kilograms).” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/health/genetics-weight-obesity.html