Genetics Reveal A Possible Cause For Failing To Lose Weight Following Gastric Bypass Surgery

Gastric bypass surgery is proving to be a lifesaver for a lot of people as obesity continues to sweep across the western world but its greatest problem is to be found in the fact that a significant number of people either fail to lose enough weight following surgery or subsequently put back much of the weight that is lost.

Naturally there are several explanations for this failure to lose weight or to regain weight and at the top of the list in undoubtedly the fact that too many people just find it too hard to make the lifestyle changes needed following surgery and eat their way back into obesity. However, scientists have now identified a genetic component that may account for some individual's failure to lose weight following a gastric bypass.

In a recent study involving in excess of 700 severely obese individuals blood samples were tested for the presence of two single nucleotide polymorphisma (SNPs). In layman's terms a SNP is a sequence of human DNA, variations in the pattern of which may indicate how individuals will develop diseases and also respond to such things as vaccines and drugs. Without looking at the details of this study which are more than a little complex, the scientists concluded that approximately twenty percent of those studied had combination of specific SNPs that indicate they are at risk of not only failing to lose weight following weight loss surgery, but may actually be at risk of gaining weight.

The difficulty we face today is not principally one of finding a solution for those individuals who are suffering from obesity, but of stopping obesity to start with and this is very much a question of education. There is no doubt that a small number of individuals are susceptible to obesity and genetics and other similar factors could well have a role to play in this. Nevertheless, by far the majority of the obesity which we today arises out of little more than poor eating habits and a lack of sufficient exercise.

However, the true problem is that once people have reached it is human nature to try to find any reason for their obesity that takes away that guilty feeling which comes from the fact that they may just have created the problem themselves. What better excuse could you hand someone than to say to them that their problem is genetic.

This is not to suggest that research into SNPs is not valid or to suggest that there is not a genetic link to the failure to lose weight or to gain weight after weight loss surgery. However, the danger is to release this data at too early a stage in the research process and simply handing individuals another excuse for not doing something about their obesity at a time when obesity is at epidemic proportions and more significantly is increasingly being found in children at earlier and earlier ages.

Scientific research is vital and needs to be given its place in the overall scheme of things but we have to be careful to ensure that it does not divert us from the real need to deal with obesity by educating individuals to change their eating habits and take sufficient exercise.

GastricBypassFacts.info provides information on many aspects of obesity including use of the gastric bypass and popular techniques such as gastric lap band surgery.