Severe Childhood Obesity and Missing DNA

Missing Chunks Of DNA Can Promote Severe Childhood Obesity In Rare Cases, Study Suggests

Remember the case of the Columbian baby who was news a little over a year ago?  You can read about it here when I wrote about it then:

Eleven-month-old Colombian baby is the weight of an eight-year-old --Can you say "Zebra"?

I hope someone working with this study saw that video, too.  According to the article, "[t]hey found evidence that several rare deletions [of DNA] may promote obesity, including one kind they studied further and found in less than 1 percent of about 1,200 severely obese children."

Thankfully, Dr. Farooqi also intervened with obese children cases under scrutiny by British child welfare authorities and showed they had the chromosome 16 deletion, taking blame off the parents. 

I realize there are many causes for obesity, and that many are due to overeating and under-exercising.  But I also know that those who really have a valid, medical problem which leads to obesity are most often derided and thrown into that same category.  Not only are there endocrine reasons, but now there are definitely genetic reasons for some.  I predict there will be more and more of this uncovered in the near future.

(Thank you to the Cushings-Help message board member who posted this article!)

Read the Nature article here:  Large, rare chromosomal deletions associated with severe early-onset obesity