Mixed
Genetically elevated body mass index (BMI) causally increases the risk of 316 distinct clinical diagnoses across circulatory, metabolic, respiratory, and genitourinary systems, with risk burden increasing significantly as BMI categories rise.
Your body weight is not just a cosmetic issue; it is a causal driver for hundreds of health conditions, including heart failure, diabetes, and sleep apnea. The risk increases as your BMI rises. Managing your weight through diet and activity is one of the most effective ways to reduce your risk for these specific, serious diseases, regardless of your genetic background.
Using a BMI genetic risk score including 2446 variants, 316 diagnoses are associated in the Million Veteran Program, with 96.5% showing increased risk... The burden of the 316 disease codes associated with genetically influenced BMI in EA increased across increasing BMI categories... There was a trend (p < 0.001) for an increasing number of associated disease codes across BMI categories
Why this rating
Large-scale Mendelian Randomization (MR) using genetic instruments (N>1 million) minimizes confounding and reverse causality, providing strong causal inference.
Source
Genomics and phenomics of body mass index reveals a complex disease network
Jie Huang et al. · Nature Communications · 2022
DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-35553-2
Related findings · Mixed
- Bariatric surgery (VSG and RYGB) is the most effective and sustainable treatment for obesity, producing marked and sustained weight loss that non-surgical interventions cannot match.Strong
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This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →