A recent study published in the journal Cell Metabolism showed that modifiable lifestyle factors can offset the genetic risk of obesity. Obesity is a non-infectious pandemic driven by sedentary lifestyles and elevated intake of energy-rich foods. Obesity is heritable and polygenic.
Several metabolic pathways contribute to weight gain, with over a thousand genetic variants associated with obesity. It has been generally believed that the genetic predisposition to obesity is not modifiable. However, gene-environment interaction studies have suggested that some lifestyle factors may attenuate the effect of specific obesity-related genes.
Nevertheless, such studies were limited to a few obesogenic genes and lifestyle factors. Besides, it is unknown how modifiable lifestyle factors interact with genetic predisposition to obesity and alleviate its burden. Study: Association of genetic risk, lifestyle, and their interaction with obesity and obesity-related morbidities .
Image Credit: Motortion Films / Shutterstock In the present study, researchers examined whether modifiable lifestyle factors offset the genetic risk of obesity. They identified over 338,600 white British individuals from the United Kingdom Biobank who passed the genetic quality control and excluded > 1,000 subjects lacking data on body mass index (BMI) or obesity-related morbidities (ORMs), leaving 337,554 individuals for inclusion. A polygenic score (PGS) was estimated based on a genome-wide association study for BMI.
