Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 15, 1993 TAG: 9305150067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"America is the fattest country in the world," said Dr. Robert Kushner, director of the University of Chicago's Nutrition and Weight Control Clinic.
Even more ominous are recent findings showing the number of obese Americans over age 17 jumped to 28 percent of the population in 1990 from 24 percent in 1985. Obesity generally is defined as being 20 percent or more over ideal body weight.
"People are getting heavier, and that is a matter of considerable concern," said Charlotte Schoenborn of the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the numbers earlier this year.
Scientists are finding no easy answers to obesity, which can trigger high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and possibly even cancer. New research, however, indicates obesity results from a combination of eating, exercise habits and genetics.
Many people carry the genes for obesity, which tend to run in families. In the presence of plentiful food and the absence of exercise, these people become obese, said Dr. Jules Hirsch, an obesity researcher at Rockefeller University.
The susceptibility ranges from mild obesity, which often can be controlled by diet and exercise, to severe, which nothing short of gastric surgery can control.
In between are millions of obese people who are frustratingly difficult to treat. Diet books and programs promise easy solutions but don't fulfill those promises. Ninety-five percent of obese people who slim down on weight-loss programs regain their weight within five years.
Hot on the tracks of two obesity genes are Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University and Doug Coleman of the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. Their experiments showed that mice with mutations in these genes, which allow excessive amounts of fat to accumulate, are three times heavier than normal animals.
In a series of experiments, Coleman showed that the obese mice are fat because they are missing a blood factor that suppresses body weight.
"The challenge is going to be to find the genes but, more importantly, to figure out how they work," Friedman said.
Hirsch said, "When we do learn the genetic basis of obesity, we will very likely find ways to intervene."
Until then, the only sound advice doctors can give for losing weight is to change one's lifestyle: Eat less and exercise more. Once weight is lost, the only thing that really helps to keep it off is physical activity.
"Obesity is a disease," said Hirsch. "It isn't laziness. People who are obese know they are obese, and they try not to be, but we don't have the wherewithal yet to help them."
Education and income also play a role in weight loss. Federal population studies show that obesity rates drop dramatically with increasing levels of education and are significantly reduced with higher income.
by CNB