IF STRAINING waistlines were still a sign of prosperity, Mexicans would be rich. These days, girth is more likely to signal sickness. Diabetes is a particular scourge. The type-2 (or late-onset) variety, which is linked to obesity, is thought to afflict 11m Mexicans. It kills 73,000 of them a year, seven times as many as organised crime.Lack of exercise and a penchant for fatty treats and fizzy drinks—of which Mexicans quaff 40% more, on average, than Americans do—are largely to blame. But that does not explain why, despite similar obesity rates, nearly one in six Mexican adults is diabetic but less than 10% of those north of the border are.Scientists have long suspected that genes are at work. Writing in the journal Nature, researchers for the appositely named Slim Initiative in Genomic Medicine for the Americas (SIGMA) have now fingered a culprit: a variant of a little-known gene called SLC16A11, which regulates one of the ways that fat is stored in cells. Inherit a copy from one parent and your risk of diabetes rises by 25%. Get one from both and it rises by 50%.Researchers at the consortium—named after Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecoms mogul and its biggest benefactor—found at least one copy in half of the genomes of the 8,000-odd Mexicans living in Mexico City and Los Angeles they looked at (some diagnosed with type-2...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21592621-new-research-suggests-genetic-susceptibility-disease-unskinny-genes?fsrc=rss|ame
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