{"id":32181,"date":"2025-07-21T09:01:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T09:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=32181"},"modified":"2025-07-21T09:29:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T09:29:17","slug":"obesity-prediction-could-be-guided-by-genetic-risk-scores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=32181","title":{"rendered":"Obesity Prediction Could Be Guided by Genetic Risk Scores"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Researchers hope that a better understanding of which genes contribute to excess weight could help with prevention starting in childhood.<\/p>\n

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Researchers have known for decades that genetics may be more powerful than environment in predicting who will develop obesity. Identical twins tend to have the same body mass index, even if they are reared apart. Adopted children tend to have a degree of obesity similar to their birth parents rather than their adoptive ones.<\/p>\n

Identifying the genetic roots of obesity could aid with prevention starting in childhood. But finding a genetic footprint for obesity has proved challenging. With rare exceptions, there\u2019s not one gene or even a few that are the culprits. Instead, obesity is spurred by thousands of gene variants acting in concert. Each variant exerts a tiny effect.<\/p>\n

Now, using genetic data from five million people, an international group of hundreds of researchers reports that it has developed an obesity risk score, known also as a polygenic risk score. It combines thousands of gene variants to estimate individuals\u2019 predicted body mass indexes<\/a>, which continue to be used by doctors to anticipate weight-related health dangers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The researchers showed that the scores can predict which young children are at risk of obesity as adults. And, in another test, they found that overweight and obese adults with high risk scores quickly regain any weight that they lose with lifestyle programs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Their paper was published<\/a> on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.<\/p>\n

Dr. Joel Hirschhorn, an author of the paper and a professor of pediatrics and genetics at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, cautioned that genetics cannot account for the effects of environment and is therefore inherently limited in predicting obesity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will almost never be able to say a child will have a BMI of 38 as an adult,\u201d he said. \u201cGenetics is not that predictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Researchers hope that a better understanding of which genes contribute to excess weight could help with prevention starting in childhood.Researchers have known for decades that genetics may be more powerful than environment in predicting who will develop obesity. Identical twins tend to have the same body mass index, even if they are reared apart. Adopted children tend to have a degree of obesity similar to their birth parents rather than their adoptive ones.Identifying the genetic roots of obesity could aid with prevention starting in childhood. But finding a genetic footprint for obesity has proved challenging. With rare exceptions, there\u2019s not one gene or even a few that are the culprits. Instead, obesity is spurred by thousands of gene variants acting in concert. Each variant exerts a tiny effect.Now, using genetic data from five million people, an international group of hundreds of researchers reports that it has developed an obesity risk score, known also as a polygenic risk score. It combines thousands of gene variants to estimate individuals\u2019 predicted body mass indexes, which continue to be used by doctors to anticipate weight-related health dangers.The researchers showed that the scores can predict which young children are at risk of obesity as adults. And, in another test, they found that overweight and obese adults with high risk scores quickly regain any weight that they lose with lifestyle programs.Their paper was published on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.Dr. Joel Hirschhorn, an author of the paper and a professor of pediatrics and genetics at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, cautioned that genetics cannot account for the effects of environment and is therefore inherently limited in predicting obesity.\u201cWe will almost never be able to say a child will have a BMI of 38 as an adult,\u201d he said. \u201cGenetics is not that predictive.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32183,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32184,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32181\/revisions\/32184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}