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Obesity Gene, Carried by More Than a Third of the US Population, Leads to Brain Tissue Loss

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The Straight Story Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-20-10 09:48 AM
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Obesity Gene, Carried by More Than a Third of the US Population, Leads to Brain Tissue Loss
Obesity Gene, Carried by More Than a Third of the US Population, Leads to Brain Tissue Loss

ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2010) — Three years ago, geneticists reported the startling discovery that nearly half of all people in the U.S. with European ancestry carry a variant of the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene, which causes them to gain weight -- from three to seven pounds, on average -- but worse, puts them at risk for obesity.

Now, UCLA researchers have found that the same gene allele, which is also carried by roughly one-quarter of U.S. Hispanics, 15 percent of African Americans and 15 percent of Asian Americans, may have another deleterious effect.

Reporting in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, senior study author Paul Thompson, a UCLA professor of neurology; lead authors April Ho and Jason Stein, graduate students in Thompson's lab; and colleagues found that the FTO variant is also associated with a loss of brain tissue. This puts more than a third of the U.S. population at risk for a variety of diseases, such as Alzheimer's.

Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers generated three-dimensional "maps" of brain volume differences in 206 healthy elderly subjects drawn from 58 sites in the U.S. as part of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a large, five-year study aimed at better understanding factors that help the brain resist disease as it ages.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100419162308.htm
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Turbineguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-20-10 09:50 AM
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1. That may explain
the large number of people who support teabaggers.
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Fridays Child Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-20-10 09:55 AM
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3. Oh, my!
Your sigline had me poring over the LBN forum for news of Cheney's demise!
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FailureToCommunicate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-20-10 10:00 AM
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4. Great. Sig. Line. !!!
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tularetom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-20-10 09:54 AM
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2. Somebody had to do this
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Gidney N Cloyd Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-20-10 10:13 AM
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5. Fatheads of the world, unite!
We have nothing to lose but our minds!

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