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Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity

Obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome are growing worldwide health concerns, yet their causes are not fully understood. Research into the etiology of the obesity epidemic is highly influenced by our understanding of the evolutionary roots of metabolic control. For half a century, the thrifty gen...

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Autor principal: Genné-Bacon, Elizabeth A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: YJBM 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4031802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24910556
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author Genné-Bacon, Elizabeth A.
author_facet Genné-Bacon, Elizabeth A.
author_sort Genné-Bacon, Elizabeth A.
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description Obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome are growing worldwide health concerns, yet their causes are not fully understood. Research into the etiology of the obesity epidemic is highly influenced by our understanding of the evolutionary roots of metabolic control. For half a century, the thrifty gene hypothesis, which argues that obesity is an evolutionary adaptation for surviving periods of famine, has dominated the thinking on this topic. Obesity researchers are often not aware that there is, in fact, limited evidence to support the thrifty gene hypothesis and that alternative hypotheses have been suggested. This review presents evidence for and against the thrifty gene hypothesis and introduces readers to additional hypotheses for the evolutionary origins of the obesity epidemic. Because these alternate hypotheses imply significantly different strategies for research and clinical management of obesity, their consideration is critical to halting the spread of this epidemic.
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spelling pubmed-40318022014-06-06 Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity Genné-Bacon, Elizabeth A. Yale J Biol Med Focus: Obesity Obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome are growing worldwide health concerns, yet their causes are not fully understood. Research into the etiology of the obesity epidemic is highly influenced by our understanding of the evolutionary roots of metabolic control. For half a century, the thrifty gene hypothesis, which argues that obesity is an evolutionary adaptation for surviving periods of famine, has dominated the thinking on this topic. Obesity researchers are often not aware that there is, in fact, limited evidence to support the thrifty gene hypothesis and that alternative hypotheses have been suggested. This review presents evidence for and against the thrifty gene hypothesis and introduces readers to additional hypotheses for the evolutionary origins of the obesity epidemic. Because these alternate hypotheses imply significantly different strategies for research and clinical management of obesity, their consideration is critical to halting the spread of this epidemic. YJBM 2014-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4031802/ /pubmed/24910556 Text en Copyright ©2014, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Focus: Obesity
Genné-Bacon, Elizabeth A.
Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity
title Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity
title_full Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity
title_fullStr Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity
title_full_unstemmed Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity
title_short Thinking Evolutionarily About Obesity
title_sort thinking evolutionarily about obesity
topic Focus: Obesity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4031802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24910556
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