Obesity
and overweight are at the root of several chronic diseases of public
health significance. Diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke and
arthritis are just a few of conditions that count obesity as a
significant risk factor. Trying to move our understanding of obesity
beyond the obvious culprits of an environment that has an amazing
abundance of easily accessible, calorie-rich and highly palatable food
to the intrinsic factors that contribute to our desire for, consumption
of and metabolism of our food is an area of active research. Genetics
and genomics are helping scientists to better understand why some
people seem to be more susceptible to obesity in this environment and
why others aren't. Of course, the caveats is emphasized that genes are
not deterministic for obesity or just about any other chronic disease,
but they do tend to lean us in a particular direction. And if the
environmental winds are going the same way, it is hard to resist.
The
CDC's Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention and the CDC's Division
of Nutrition and Physical have collaboratively published a webpage on
genomics and obesity, seeking to look at it from a public health
perspective. I include the link here for your review. Check it out.
http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/training/perspectives/obesity.htm
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