The gene, called adipose, was discovered in fat fruit flies more than 50 years ago by a graduate student at Yale University, but few people knew about it. Its mechanism was unknown, and whether it's important in other genes was a mystery. In the current study, the UT Southwestern researchers examined how adipose works by analyzing fruit flies, tiny worms called C.
Using several methods, they manipulated adipose in the various animals, turning the gene on and off at different stages in the animals' lives and in various parts of their bodies. It was discovered that the gene, which is also present in humans, is likely to be a high-level master switch that tells the body whether to accumulate or burn fat. In the mice, the researchers found that increasing adipose activity improved the animals' health in many ways.
Mice with experimentally increased adipose activity ate as much or more than normal mice; however, they were leaner, had diabetes-resistant fat cells, and were better able to control insulin and blood-sugar metabolism. The researchers' work on flies showed that the gene is "dose-sensitive" -- that is, the various combinations of the gene's variants lead to a range of body types from slim to medium to obese.
Graff said. This genetic mechanism makes survival sense, he said, because if a population has many versions of the gene scattered among many different individuals, at least some will survive in different conditions.
For instance, a fat fruit fly may be able to survive famine, but a sleeker model might be better at evading predators. Graff said the next step is to understand better the exact mechanisms by which adipose exerts its control. Although the current study finally identifies the adipose gene's function, the gene was discovered more than 50 years ago when Winifred Doane, now a professor emeritus at Arizona State University, was studying fruit flies and noticed that some contained more fat than others.
She linked this trait to a gene she named adipose and hypothesized that this natural variation gave the chubbier flies an evolutionary advantage; they could hoard more fat on the same amount of food as their skinnier counterparts, allowing them to survive times of famine. But for people in developed countries, this trait has backfired. It's all feast and no famine, so the fat builds and builds. Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were Dr. He says avoiding carbs altogether however and eating mostly protein as prescribed by the Atkins diet is a false dawn.
This is bad news in that it switches off your skinny genes. Devised by his co-author, the former Gladiator Kate Staples , the exercises take as little as eight minutes a day to do. As muscle burns fat, a lack of muscle can cause weight gain. Holford thinks most of us are definitely eating too much.
Then your blood sugar goes down very quickly and low blood sugar makes you hungry. Holford cites devotees of his diet who have lost big — a woman who lost nine stone on the diet in 10 months and a man who lost seven stone in seven months.
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