Researchers from the University of Westminster in collaboration with the University of Brunel and the University of Exeter have found that having certain genes can protect people with obesity from certain life-changing ailments such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The study was funded by Diabetes UK and involved researchers from the University of Westminster using data from the UK Biobank as well as from Finland’s FinnGen project, which collected information from 500,000 individuals aged between 37 to 73 between 2006 – 2010 from across the UK.
One in four people in the UK are already considered by the NHS to be ‘very overweight’ and at increased risk of getting seriously ill. Anyone with a BMI over 30 is considered obese rather than just overweight and although people with obesity are of a similar weight, two people with the same BMI can have very different amounts of fat, which can be distributed throughout different places in the body.
Fat stored under the skin is considered less harmful than fat stored around the organs such as the liver and heart, and the genes we are born with determine where the fat is stored. Scientists refer to this as having ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable’ adiposity.
Through their new study, the researchers found that those with ‘unlucky’ fat genes, meaning they store higher levels of fat everywhere, including under the skin, liver and pancreas, are associated with higher risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Those who have genes that mean they have higher fat under the skin but lower liver fat means that they have lower risk of disease.
Using a technique known as Mendelian randomisation, the team found that of the 37 diseases they tested, 12 – including coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes – were directly related to the genes that determine whether or not a person have a ‘favourable adiposity’. Nine of the diseases could be said to be unrelated to someone’s adiposity and were most likely a result of simply carrying too much weight, such as having deep vein thrombosis or arthritic knees.
However, the researchers caution that regardless of whether someone has a favourable or unfavourable adiposity, being obese is a serious hazard to a person’s health, with even those with a favourable adiposity still at a heightened risk of diseases including gallstones, adult-onset asthma and psoriasis. They also found some other diseases previously thought to be related to someone’s weight, such as Alzheimer’s, appear to be unconnected.
Talking about the research, Professor Louise Thomas, Professor of Metabolic Imaging at the University of Westminster, said: “We have known for a long time that where we store fat within the body has a huge impact on our risk of developing disease, this has in the past often been linked to people’s lifestyle. This new study showing how people’s genetics affect this is hugely important, for both people’s perception towards obesity and will help identify the best treatments that can help individuals.”
Dr Hanieh Yaghootkar, Visiting Fellow at the University of Westminster and Lecturer in Biosciences at Brunel University London, said: “To better prevent and measure risk of disease, it is important to understand if obesity is a casual risk factor and if it is causal, which consequences of it – be they metabolic, mechanical or psychological – are deriving the risk.”
Read the full paper in the eLife journal.
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