K
Kurgan Gringion
Guest
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/20/1047749878466.html
Binge eating can be blamed on a defective gene March 21 2003 By Delthia Ricks New York
Binge eating can be traced to a gene, researchers say, in a sharp departure from the long-accepted
idea that it is due to a
psychological disturbance.
The new analysis is one of two reports in the New England Journal of Medicine, published today, on
severe obesity and genetic defects in the appetite-regulating gene, the mela-nocortin-4 receptor
(MC4R), which makes a protein involved in appetite function in the brain.
"This should help to create some compassion," said John Kral, an obesity expert at the State
University of New York Downstate Medical Centre, Brooklyn, and a member of the team that
conducted the study. "I think it will help lead to the legitimacy of this disease as having a
genetic background in at least a percentage of the population," Dr Kral said. He and colleagues
in Switzerland and Germany estimate the defect is probably the villain in many severely obese
binge eaters.
<snip>
perhaps it may be time to be nicer to our obese brethren.
Binge eating can be blamed on a defective gene March 21 2003 By Delthia Ricks New York
Binge eating can be traced to a gene, researchers say, in a sharp departure from the long-accepted
idea that it is due to a
psychological disturbance.
The new analysis is one of two reports in the New England Journal of Medicine, published today, on
severe obesity and genetic defects in the appetite-regulating gene, the mela-nocortin-4 receptor
(MC4R), which makes a protein involved in appetite function in the brain.
"This should help to create some compassion," said John Kral, an obesity expert at the State
University of New York Downstate Medical Centre, Brooklyn, and a member of the team that
conducted the study. "I think it will help lead to the legitimacy of this disease as having a
genetic background in at least a percentage of the population," Dr Kral said. He and colleagues
in Switzerland and Germany estimate the defect is probably the villain in many severely obese
binge eaters.
<snip>
perhaps it may be time to be nicer to our obese brethren.