There is an ongoing controversy that various populations have certain health related issues due to their societal conditions versus a genetic profile. Consider the issue of obesity. Obesity all too often leads to Type 2 Diabetes, T2D, and related health impacts, Thus the sequence of obesity then T2D then cardiac and renal issues is common. It is well known that this is common in Native Americans. Native Americans have a strong genetic trait to survive and prosper on limited caloric intake. Like many other stressed ethnicity this factor get eliminated in an advanced society such as the US and obesity occur due to the proliferation of high caloric food intake. The sequellae are then inevitable,
In a recent paper by Sun et al they note:
Preferential fat accumulation in visceral vs. subcutaneous depots makes obese individuals more prone to metabolic complications. Body fat distribution (FD) is regulated by genetics. FD patterns vary across ethnic groups independent of obesity. Asians have more and Africans have less visceral fat compared with Europeans. Consequently, Asians tend to be more susceptible to type 2 diabetes even with lower BMIs when compared with Europeans. To date, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 460 loci related to FD traits. However, the majority of these data were generated in European populations. In this review, we aimed to summarize recent advances in FD genetics with a focus on comparisons between European and non-European populations (Asians and Africans). We therefore not only compared FD-related susceptibility loci identified in three ethnicities but also discussed whether known genetic variants might explain the FD pattern heterogeneity across different ancestries. Moreover, we describe several novel candidate genes potentially regulating FD, including NID2, HECTD4 and GNAS, identified in studies with Asian populations. It is of note that in agreement with current knowledge, most of the proposed FD candidate genes found in Asians belong to the group of developmental genes
Thus one may observe that the genetic predisposition is dominant. This genetic predisposition all too often is the controlling factor and not societal constraints. Also generally it demands education of this fact and remediation to assure that the negative effects are minimized. No patient or person is the same but some generalizations may be helpful.
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