Friday, April 9, 2010

Exercise Trumps Gene In Teen Obesity

“Sure, genes may be a factor in some cases of obesity, but it just got a little harder to blame your parents. It turns out that one hour of moderate to vigorous exercise a day can help adolescents overcome a particular genetic predisposition to weight gain. One of our pals at the Two-Way blog took a look at some new work on genes vs. exercise a few days ago, which got us wanting to know more. European researchers looked at one gene in particular -- it's called FTO rs9939609 polymorphism, or 'fatso' for short -- in a population of 752 teenagers, and they found that physical activity can mitigate its effects. The study appears in the April edition of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. ‘In the study, the [FTO gene] was found to be associated with higher BMI and waist...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/04/exercise_trumps_gene_in_teen_o.html

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