Twins explain why some people are more likely to gain weight. health and wellness

According to research by the Carlos III Health Institute and the Spanish Food Safety Agency, obesity affects more than half of adults and a third of minors in Spain. Many people are worried about weight gain, while many others do not gain weight despite leading a sedentary life without keeping track of calories. These differences were previously attributed to genetics, but a group of researchers from Finland have found a new approach to finding out why some people are more likely to gain weight than others. Research published in journal obesityIt is the first of its kind to be able to distinguish between a pair of twins with a large difference in weight and whose body mass index (BMI) was not equal to what was genetically intended.

The study, conducted by the University of Helsinki, examined for 36 years the trajectory of body mass index in twins who presented lower or higher levels than expected according to their genetics, with a special emphasis on those who There is a huge disparity between them. , The study author, Bram J. of the Institute of Molecular Medicine of Finland. Berntzen, assures that this “novel approach” opens the door to discovering factors that protect or predispose people to weight gain. Furthermore, it assures obesityThat this method can provide valuable information about maintaining a healthy weight.

Jaakko Caprio, a geneticist in genetic epidemiology at the University of Helsinki and co-author of the study, explains that “a major finding” was that the weight predicted based on genetics was sometimes close to the weight of the thinner twin, so this could be due to this. Consider that the heavier twin deviates more from his biological nature. “This suggests that there are environmental causes of weight gain that influenced the heavier twin, and these could be studied more closely,” the researchers say.

The authors point out that the main contribution of their work is that while previous studies were applied to twins with large weight differences, they did not establish whether the twin with a higher or lower BMI is the one that deviates more from the genetic predisposition. Is. More than 3,000 Finnish twins were examined for this research. The study began in 1975 and was followed up in 1981, 1990, and 2011, providing a unique perspective on how weight patterns evolve over time. The researchers found that the twin with the higher BMI in 1975 was more likely to have a deviation above the predicted BMI, while the twin with the lower BMI was more likely to have a deviation below the prediction. This points to a genetic relationship between baseline BMI and weight trends over decades. Individuals classified within or above the prediction in 1975 showed a consistent pattern of becoming overweight and obese, respectively, by 2011.

Accordingly, they found that some people had a genetic predisposition to rapid weight gain in childhood, while their twins did not. Once they reach adulthood, their weight will increase in the same manner. Thus, they highlight the importance of studying the reasons why one child may gain much more weight than others. When this happens, move The habit of eating whatever a person wants without gaining weight ends when the person becomes an adult. Jennifer Lovejoy, a translational researcher at Duke University in North Carolina, United States, who did not participate in the study, finds it valuable to focus the research not only on overweight twins and asks: “What do some people think about this? “Saves that we see twins are thin? It’s not entirely true that it’s genetically determined.”

In recent weeks, a document reality From Netflix (We are what we eat) has brought into the global conversation the possibility of using twins to study the effects of dissimilar diets: omnivorous or herbivorous. The program, in just eight weeks, showed improvements in heart health in those following a vegetarian diet. However, the television program has some scientific weaknesses pointed out by experts, and even differs from results published by Stanford University researchers in a scientific journal.

Therefore, the greatest achievement of the study was published in obesity They are not its current findings, but rather a window of opportunity opening up for future research. By following this method, scientists explain that in the future it will be possible to study children from birth to adulthood, with the aim of better understanding the factors that cause obesity and thus finding formulas to combat it. In Caprio’s words, thanks to this discovery, it is now possible to study two different groups: those who gain weight and those who lose weight: “This could help researchers understand why people of normal weight How to maintain and sometimes how they don’t. “They are successful.” And this, in turn, could have important implications for public health strategies and personalized treatments.

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