Study Says Obesity Genetics-but You Can Still Lose The Weight

Study Says Obesity Genetics-but You Can Still Lose The Weight by jason Witt

When you receive the Seal you will begin to take better care of your health. That means eating right. But you may have a genetic inclination to eat too much, according to a new study.

There is a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that has been found to regulate appetite in the brain of mice. It was previously known to work with young mice but now has been shown to work for adults too.

That is important because it indicates what can be done to treat the disease of obesity. In America, 25 percent of the population is thought to be suffering from a mutation in the gene that should produce BDNF.

If that gene is mutated, as often happens with some genes in the human genome, then the protein will not be produced. And the protein is essential to regulating appetite, so without it people will tend to eat too much.

The mice were studied when BDNF had been deleted from their brains. Without the BDNF the mice ate too much and became obese. But when their food supply was limited they lost the extra weight.

So lacking BDNF is lacking nature's own appetite suppressant. Without enough of the protein you will want to eat more than you need. But if you can not get the extra food you will not gain any extra weight.

There are other factors in obesity and weight gain--physiological factors. There is an energy balance between how many calories are taken in and how many calories are burned as energy.

The appetite suppressant protein BDNF has nothing to do with the physiological aspects of weight gain (or loss.) It just regulates how much food a person feels he or she needs to eat to be satisfied.

Of course your energy is out of balance if you take in too many or too few calories. But an out-of-control appetite can cause this imbalance, making a brain problem into a body problem.

More studies will show where BDNF acts in the cells and molecules of the brain. That will bring researchers closer to treatments for people whose bodies unfortunately have their genes damaged and lack ability to make BDNF.

When you eat less or fast for a while, BDNF production decreases. And it increases when the brain gets some glucose. Without this happening, a person will never know how much he or she is eating.

When you are sealed you will begin to care about your health. God will reveal this to you. Even without the natural chemical (and treatments for such a condition) you can learn to regulate your weight.

Some people are genetically predisposed to obesity or excess weight. But you can beat the odds. You can learn to eat less and exercise too. It is always possible to lose the weight.

And losing just a little weight when you are obese is a tremendous health gain. It might not be a big percentage of your body weight (yet) but the health benefits will compound.

When you are sealed you will have spiritual help from God even when you do not have the help of nature in BDNF. But the spiritual help is even better than the natural help.

God is greater than your chemical make-up, and He will empower you to lose the extra weight. Relying on God will give you even more power than He gave the average person naturally. And you will realize that when you receive the Seal.