Severe obesity – a 70% hereditary condition

[26 March 2009 - 08h15]

The first genetic map of severe obesity has recently been drawn up by an international research team led by Frenchman Philippe Froguel of the CNRS (the French National Scientific Research Centre) and David Meyre of INSERM (the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research).

Eventually, this decrypting should make it possible to identify children at risk of obesity at an early stage and, most importantly, to put in place individually tailored preventive medical strategies.

The researchers carried out full genome sweeps on 2,796 French volunteers: 1,380 of whom suffered from severe familial obesity while the other 1,416 formed a control group. The results are interesting. Five genes appear to play a major role in susceptibility to obesity.

"This research reveals that studying familial forms of severe obesity is particularly useful in understanding the genetic causes of this condition", the researchers point out. And it is a cause that is estimated to apply in 70% of cases. However, it is important to remember that this does not in any way reduce the "fundamental role of dietary behaviour in the regulation and evolution of human corpulence and in the incidence of severe obesity in children". To be clear, while the genetic aspect of obesity is now indisputable, the impact of an unbalanced diet and a sedentary lifestyle is just as much so. In fact, numerous studies have shown that an obese child, or one who is overweight at the age of 13, has a 2 times higher risk than others of remaining obese when an adult. Which is why it is so important to keep our children’s weight under control.

Source : CNRS - February 2009

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