And excess consumption of saturated fats raises obesity risk, researchers find

New research sheds light on the possible link between the genes you inherit and the size of your belly.

Participants in a French study doubled their risk of having fat around the abdomen if they had a certain genetic trait, and the more of these traits one had, the greater the risk for a pot belly.

The study was looking at metabolic syndrome, a condition in which abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure combine to raise the risk of several diseases such as stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The findings are just one more piece of the obesity puzzle, a nutrition specialist said.

“Certainly it adds to the body of knowledge, but we need to look at what it means within the big picture and context of all the other obesity research,” said Lona Sandon, an assistant professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Results of the study, which was designed to explore a possible link between genes and metabolic syndrome, are published in the November issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

The researchers followed 1,754 French people for seven and a half years, tracking what they ate. They found that having any one of five genetic traits doubled the risk that a person would have abdominal obesity, and that eating a lot of saturated fats boosted the risk even more. But they also found that having one of the genetic traits didn’t boost the risk of metabolic syndrome.

Sandon said the study doesn’t confirm that the genetic trait directly leads to obesity. The findings, she said, show “an association, not a cause-and-effect.”

Also, she pointed out that while the study found a relationship between the gene and abdominal obesity, some subjects were consuming more than 15.5 percent of their calories from saturated fat.

The current recommendation is 10 percent for most healthy people and 7 percent for those with high cholesterol and other metabolic risk factors for heart disease, she said.

In the larger picture, researchers are beginning to understand how genetics are connected to obesity and “how those genes are affected by environment and food components,” Sandon said.

“The mystery is how do we put this into real health recommendations, and how do multiple genes work together to promote or squelch obesity,” she said. “If there were just one gene related to obesity, the answer might be simple. But we know multiple genes are involved, so it is difficult to make hard and fast conclusions about what people should do with this information.”

When it comes to obesity, the factors of genetics, diet and exercise — or lack thereof — are indeed “highly entangled,” said study co-author Dr. Richard Planells, a professor of biochemistry at University of Aix-Marseille II in France.

What to do? At the moment, genetic tests to track these particular genes aren’t feasible. “Many other genes have to be analyzed before one can design a genetic map,” Planells explained.

Even if there was such a test, “the majority of control is always in your hands,” added Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian and author in New York City. “Even if you have strong genetic predispositions to obesity or any disease, you are not guaranteed to develop that disease. Given the exact same lifestyle, yes, you will have a higher risk, but the bottom line is that the majority of the risk lies in how you treat your body, and that’s empowering.”

SOURCES: Lona Sandon, R.D., assistant professor, clinical nutrition, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Richard Planells, M.D., Ph.D., professor, biochemistry, University of Aix-Marseille II, Marseille, France; Cynthia Sass, M.P.H., R.D., registered dietitian and author, New York City; November 2009, Journal of Nutrition

Copyright (c) 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

AS IF people struggling with obesity did not have enough to worry about, they now face a new health hazard. According to statistics from the US, overweight people appear more likely to die of swine flu.

The only study looking directly at flu and obesity was done in 2007 by Melinda Beck and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. It was already known that abdominal fat releases a continuous stream of chemicals that trigger inflammation, an immune response normally aimed at killing invading pathogens and infected cells. So Beck’s team wondered what effect this had on flu. They were especially interested, she says, because runaway inflammation, known as a “cytokine storm”, is what kills most flu victims.

Swine Flu Symptoms

According to the CDC, like seasonal flu, symptoms of swine flu infections can include:

• fever, which is usually high, but unlike seasonal flu, is sometimes absent
• cough
• runny nose or stuffy nose
• sore throat
• body aches
• headache
• chills
• fatigue or tiredness, which can be extreme
• diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes, but more commonly seen than with seasonal flu

“Obesity” specifically refers to an excessive amount of body fat. “Overweight” refers to an excessive amount of body weight that includes muscle, bone, fat, and water. As a rule, women have more body fat than men. Most health care professionals agree that men with more than 25 percent body fat and women with more than 30 percent body fat are considered obese. These numbers should not be confused with the body mass index (BMI), however, which is more commonly used by health care professionals to determine the effect of body weight on the risk for some diseases.

“Women with a waist measurement of more than 35 inches and men with a waist measurement of more than 40 inches may have more health risks than people with lower waist measurements because of their body fat distribution.”

Extremely obese people are more likely to be injured than the people who have a normal body mass index.

A new study on the subject says about one out of every four obese people report personal injuries in men and about one out of every five obese women report the same. This may be compared to the one out of six normal weight men and one out of eight normal weight women who report such injuries.

Researchers report that while there have been other researchers linking obesity with increased risk of injuries, but the research for that had been conducted on a typical workforce or children, this is one of the first studies that try to find out the risk of injury to obese people of the general population.

Body mass index (BMI) ranging from 18.5 to 24.9 is considered to be normal. People are considered overweight if the index ranges between of 25 to 29.9, while BMI over 30 is considered to be obese.

Researchers feel that overexertion and falls are the two most common causes of injuries in obese and extremely obese people. As obesity can limit the amount of physical strain a person can take, this may cause the obese people to stretch themselves and fall.

Reference: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, July 2005 – [Source]