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Ancestry Says Whose Least Obese in Chubby Checkered Cultures
Professor David J. Demko, PhD
AgeVenture News Service 07-10-03
Dr. David J. Demko, gerontologist Despite our relatively universal genetic code, there are significant differences in health risks among ancestral populations who suffer higher prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity. Biomedical researchers believe there may be some genetic basis for the health differences. Finding these genes might help researchers better understand the progression of these diseases and potentially lead to new diagnoses and treatments, according to a team of international researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. One very promising development is the creation of a method that estimates the ancestral proportions of individuals, the percentage of genes that are West African, Native American or European. Developed by Penn State's Dr. Mark D. Shriver, the ancestral method will be used by researchers to better understand the relationships between ancestral-mix and risk to various diseases.
In the July issue of Obesity Research, Dr. Jose Fernandez (University of Alabama), reports there is an association between body mass index (a measure of obesity) and West African ancestry. Estimating proportions of ancestry may provide clues to genetic influences on obesity and help public health professionals better educate populations, according to international research supported by the National Institutes of Health.

"African-American women have a higher prevalence of obesity, but it appears not to be as dangerous to their health as it is for European-American women", says Dr. Mark D. Shriver, professor of anthropology at Penn State. Although many Americans identify with only one racial-ethnic group, U.S. residents are actually highly mixed. All human populations are closely related and there are very few genes that are different between any two populations.

"These results support the use of ancestry informative markers when studying differences among mixed populations in complex biomedical traits, particularly when exploring genetic factors influencing these differences," says Dr. Jose Fernandez, professor of nutrition, University of Alabama. "The differences in the prevalence of obesity-related phenotypes among African American females and European American Females could be partly due to genetic factors."

"This study supports two things", says Shriver.
First, we are a very mixed country and proportional ancestry,
not categorical race, is a much better means to study human differences.
Second, genetic mixture mapping can be an important tool
for the study of genetic and environmental causes of obesity.

The researchers suggest that expanding the study to larger samples, including environmental measures, increasing the number of markers and looking at other admixed populations like the African Caribbeans is necessary.
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David Demko reports on lifestyle issues and trends in Aging America.
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