Some Morbidly Obese People Are Missing Genes, Shows New Research

Thank Heaven. With those extra genes, they would weigh even more.

A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to research published February 3 in Nature. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London and ten other European Centres, say that missing DNA such as that identified in this research may be having a dramatic effect on some people's weight.

According to the new findings, around seven in every thousand morbidly obese people are missing a part of their DNA, containing approximately 30 genes. The researchers did not find this kind of genetic variation in any normal weight people.

The data show it is the "smarts" gene that is missing.

That explains a lot.