Lifestyle solutions may get better results for Indians with obesity risk: Study

Lifestyle solutions or specific nutrient supplementation might yield better results for Indians with genetic risk of obesity reveals a studyMany gene variants previously associated with obesity in Europeans do not affect Indians similarly which resonates with a different pattern of obesity in Indians according to the findings of the study by researchers at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology under Council of Scientific and Industrial Research CSIRCCMB HyderabadThe study also revealed that Polygenic Risk Score PSR predicts obesity more accurately in people with Europeanlike ancestry than in those with other ancestries including Indians South Asian ancestryResearchers at CSIRCCMB led by Dr Giriraj Ratan Chandak characterised the genomes of the Indian population They included individuals with diabetes as well as those with normal blood glucose levels who have been followed for nearly 20 years providing a unique opportunity to investigate the genetic basis of obesity in IndiansObesity is a grave problem in India and other parts of South Asia given their incidences of diseases like diabetes hypertension and cardiovascular diseases The pattern of obesity in India is notably different from that in Europe with Indians tending to have more central abdominal obesitySeveral obesityassociated genetic changes were identified and used to develop the PRS for Indians effectively creating a ldquovirtual individualrdquo to model obesity risk This data from Indian samples has served as a representative for the South Asian population in the study Through this data the studys findings become more relevant for the Indian and South Asian populationsThe scientists also examined the connection between a personrsquos genetic risk of obesity and the impact of lifestyle weight loss interventions such as diet and exercise They discovered that individuals with a higher genetic risk of obesity responded better to interventions but also regained weight more quickly once the interventions endedldquoThe observations made from this study are similar to the earlier results on height where genetic variants identified in Europeans predicted lower risk in Indians and environmentrelated modifications of genes play a larger role It looks like lifestyle diet and nutrition might be playing an equal or more important role in predicting obesity in Indians So for Indians lifestyle solutions or specific nutrient supplementation in the background of genetic risk might yield better resultsrdquo said Dr ChandakEarlier studies by Dr Chandak showed that the genetic basis of noncommunicable diseases varies significantly between Indians and EuropeansThe latest study by researchers at CSIRCCMB is part of a global study An international team of 600 researchers across 500 institutions drew on the largest and most diverse genetic dataset ever This provided access to genetic information from over 5 million people from different countries including IndiaUsing this data the researchers developed a genetic test called PRS that predicts adulthood obesity in early childhood This discovery could help identify children and adolescents already at higher genetic risk of developing obesity who could benefit from targeted preventative strategies such as lifestyle interventions at a younger age This score is twice as effective as the previous best test at predicting a personrsquos risk of developing obesityldquoWhat makes the score so powerful is its ability to predict around the age of five whether a child is likely to develop obesity in adulthood well before other risk factors start to shape their weight later in childhood Intervening at this point can have a huge impactrdquo says Assistant Professor Roelof Smit from the NNF Centre for Basic Metabolic Research CBMR at the University of Copenhagen and lead author of the research that was published in the journal Nature MedicineThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever