We spend a lot of time looking for reasons why we are fat. There has to be some other answer besides too much sitting and too much eating. While personally I don’t believe there are a lot of other meaningful answers to this ever-growing problem, there is a recent study that is quite interesting.
A recent look at the epigenetics of fat families suggests that indeed we can inherit fat epigenes. You may have heard of the so-called “conservation gene” a kind of mythical concoction of the effects of something called Apo E4 and its effects on metabolism. The Apo series is a concatenation of lipoproteins that clear fat and cholesterol differently from each other. There are many genes devoted to energy processing in our body and the Apo series is one of them. When a gene mutates in a fashion that is still compatible with some kind of lifespan, it is usually referred to as an allele. In the case of the Apo’s, the allele that was common during our Paleolithic gene development is in fact the one that causes the most problems with weight metabolism and inflammation, Apo E4. It also increases the risk for late onset Alzheimer’s. So our ancestors were pretty much designed to live well for no more than 45 years and then the ravages of their Apo E4 genetics stacked the odds against them. The good news is most people (80% of the population) have the variant- Apo E3 which works much better to clear fat and cholesterol.
So once again we are faced with the classic scientific dilemma- if genes are the thing for most of us what is? The answer of course is equally classic and oh so fashionable these days: epigenetics.
Epigenetics can be heritable as well though, so it now appears that when you see those fat kids that look like young carbon copies of their fat parents, it is the result of the environment shaping the expression of genes: e.g. epigenetics also pushed along by the heritable part of that same epigenetics.
Basically these kids are fat from conception!
Now if you or someone you know is like that, take heart. Many, if not all epigenetic traits seem to be changeable with YOUR environment. What you may have to deal with is a tough concept: You have to work harder than the average person to lose and keep weight off and for at least a while you will have to “battle this problem everyday”.
This means if you slip or slide off your diet and exercise routines for a short while, everything goes back to normal.
When I designed Ultra Strength Fat Furnace we did not know any of this. All I knew was I needed to create a non-drug natural supplement that worked to curb appetite and increase metabolism and give people a “head start” on weight loss.
The most frustrating thing for my patients in all my years of bariatric medicine can be summed up by this oft heard phrase, “Doc, I am doing everything right for two whole weeks and I haven’t lost a pound!”
So it is with typical diets, which explains why many people go for the crazy fad stuff. We want, expect and even demand everything fast.
Since 2004 it’s been helping people beat a very tough problem – weight loss!
Doc