Thin doesn't always mean healthy. Don't want IRS1 gene.

ninerbuff
ninerbuff Posts: 49,456 Spam Moderator
edited December 2024 in Chit-Chat
When I hear about many people complaining that their SO's or friends can eat anything they want, don't exercise and still stay thin, then wish they had their genes, they may find the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
Individuals with low body fat may not be protected from diabetes and heart disease, finds a new study that researchers say is "intriguing". In an analysis from the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School (HMS), scientists found a gene, called IRS1, that is linked to lower body fat. However, the gene is also associated with higher glucose and cholesterol levels, putting individuals with low body weight at risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Men especially at risk for diabetes from IRS1 gene

Douglas P. Kiel, M.D., M.P.H., a senior scientist at the Institute for Aging Research and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School said,. "People, particularly men, with a specific form of the gene are both more likely to have lower percent body fat, but also to develop heart disease and type 2 diabetes. In simple terms, it is not only overweight individuals who can be predisposed for these metabolic diseases."
Kiel adds, "We've uncovered a truly fascinating genetic story and, when we found the effect of this gene, we were very intrigued by the unexpected finding."

Kiel, and David Karasik, Ph.D., who are working with the Framingham Heart Study, examined the genomes of more than 75,000 people to find genes associated with body fat percentage, finding the unhealthy IRS1 gene.

The scientists explain IRS1 leads to the kind of fat that collects around organs instead of under the skin. The gene keeps people's waistlines slim, but for those with the variant, fat ends up in more dangerous places. Kiel says the result of fat around the organs is higher risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

He says genes not only determine total body fat, but they also determine ..."what kind of fat you have. Some collections of fat, such as the kind located just under the skin, may actually be less harmful than the type located in the abdominal cavity, which may increase the risk of developing metabolic disease."

Since men store less fat than women, they may be more sensitive to the way fat is distributed, making them more susceptible to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The study, which appears online, June 26,2011, in the journal Nature Genetics, shows being thin doesn't mean lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The IRS1 gene boosts cholesterol and glucose levels and may lead to dangerous fat around the organs, increasing the chances of developing diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1020/gene-discovery-shows-even-low-body-weight-wont-stop-diabetes
This is why I even tell friends I know who are "thin" and do no exercise and eat whatever they want to get a yearly checkup. At least cholesterol levels can indicate if there's an issue or not.

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Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,456 Spam Moderator
    Bump
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,896 Member
    I love these kind of studies. Every other sentence has "may" in it. Talk about hedging your bets. :laugh:




    .must learn to type :grumble:
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,456 Spam Moderator
    I love these kind of studies. Every other sentence has "may" in it. Talk about hedging your bets. :laugh:




    .must learn to type :grumble:
    When it comes to genetics, especially since we're getting better at understanding how they work, the odds are higher on being correct then just working off correlation.
    And quit posting till I catch up.:laugh:
    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
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  • mrmanmeat
    mrmanmeat Posts: 1,968 Member
    I think most people just want to be fit/healthy, while some just want the ultimate 5' 100lb frame.
    Please stop posting your "signature" after every post.
  • bcampbell54
    bcampbell54 Posts: 932 Member
    I don't want a gene named IRS anything.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,456 Spam Moderator
    I think most people just want to be fit/healthy, while some just want the ultimate 5' 100lb frame.
    Please stop posting your "signature" after every post. It's really annoying and if anyone cared, they'd read your profile.
    I like annoying people.:laugh: And yes many read the profile and friend me because of it. Sorry you don't approve, but it's not like I need your approval anyway.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,896 Member
    You would have to waste the entire rest of your Sunday to try to catch up. Or you could hit one of the word game threads. Talk about getting sucked in. But you can really "up" those post counts quickly with one-word posts.
  • Silverkittycat
    Silverkittycat Posts: 1,997 Member
    What? There'd be no growth without it, among other things. I must be missing something here. I'm no expert on those insulin signaling proteins, but wouldn't it just be certain mutations of IRS1 that might be related to those health problems? Over or under expression?
    I has confusion. lol
  • ShrinkRapt451
    ShrinkRapt451 Posts: 447 Member
    I love these kind of studies. Every other sentence has "may" in it. Talk about hedging your bets. :laugh:




    .must learn to type :grumble:

    Don't forget, that this is a scientist talking to a lay press representative, so they're over-using the word to get the point across. Guarantee, if you read the study, the word "may" is still in there. Scientists know that results are interesting but not definitive until they've been replicated, preferably several times, in well-designed studies. And that correlation does not prove causation. (Example: taller people tend to weigh more than short people do. This does not mean that weighing more causes one to be tall, nor that being tall causes one to be weigh more.)

    That said, Framingham was a HUGE study -- it's rare to get so many thousands of participants involved in a single study because it's so very expensive -- that was undertaken to look at heart disease. So with numbers like that to draw upon when you're doing the sort of genetic testing that is kinda like taking a metal detector to the beach ("let's look through this and see if anything pops up"), it's not surprising that you'd see some results that might not emerge in a smaller study.

    And since intra-abdominal fat, the kind that nestles around organs, has emerged in recent years as the kind of fat that is most directly correlated with risks for heart disease, it really is VERY interesting that there might ultimately prove to be a genetic test that can tell an individual if they're at higher risk (kinda like the BRCA genes for breast & ovarian cancers).

    ETA: from what that quoted article said, it IS a specific variant (also known as "mutation" -- gene mutations are extraordinarily common, don't forget) that seems to be the one increasing risk. Whether that particular gene is highly active otherwise, or necessary to our functioning in some way, I'm not sure without reading further. Humans have a lot of genes that appear to be rarely, if ever, expressed.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,456 Spam Moderator
    You would have to waste the entire rest of your Sunday to try to catch up. Or you could hit one of the word game threads. Talk about getting sucked in. But you can really "up" those post counts quickly with one-word posts.
    Yeah, not gonna happen today. It's Mother's Day!:flowerforyou:

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • katemme
    katemme Posts: 191 Member
    If its a gene, doesn't that mean its something you're born with and can't control?
  • ShrinkRapt451
    ShrinkRapt451 Posts: 447 Member
    If its a gene, doesn't that mean its something you're born with and can't control?

    Yep. Which means that, if you know you're at higher risk, then you'd want to take steps to minimize your risk. Eat healthier, for example, from an early age.

    Women with the BRCA mutations that increase risk for breast and ovarian cancers typically get much more aggressive screening, for example.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,896 Member
    Interesting, ShrinkRapt451.

    Still, I remember not that long ago dietary cholesterol "may" be linked to heart disease. Regardless of the size of the Framingham study, it will be a very long time before this IRS1 gene will be definitively linked to this abdominal fat issue, and longer still until they are in 100% agreement and can remove the "may". I won't live that long, nor will I even know if I have this particular mutation.

    I worked in genetics for a while. Fascinating and wide open, indefinitely into the future. Totally off-topic: I had some genetic testing done to personalize my medical plan. The information I now have available has greatly affected my treatment plan, as I do have a fairly rare mutation in 2C19. So personalized genetic testing is already a valuable resource. I now wish I'd stuck with the field.


  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,456 Spam Moderator
    If its a gene, doesn't that mean its something you're born with and can't control?
    Yes. The point of the thread was to show that people who may be thin aren't always the epitome of health.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • shammxo
    shammxo Posts: 1,432 Member
    Meeeeeeow.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,456 Spam Moderator
    Meeeeeeow.
    Nice kitty.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • pdworkman
    pdworkman Posts: 1,342 Member
    Not necessarily. Some genes you are born with and they are turned on and never get turned off. Brown eyes, red hair, cystic fibrosis, things like that. Some genes you are born with and they are permanently turned on by an environmental factor - a virus, stress, gluten, pregnancy, etc. Some genes you are born with and they can be turned on or turned off by a lifestyle or environmental factor. Predispositions to particular cancers, heart disease, etc. We don't know a lot about them, the field of genetics is still in its infancy. But we know that by living a certain lifestyle, we can greatly reduce our risk.
    If its a gene, doesn't that mean its something you're born with and can't control?
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