Mixed
Carriers of the FTO rs9939609 A allele have a significantly increased risk of metabolic syndrome, primarily driven by higher rates of depressed HDL cholesterol and increased waist circumference.
If you carry the FTO rs9939609 A allele, you have a genetically higher baseline risk for metabolic syndrome, specifically regarding belly fat and cholesterol levels. This is not a life sentence, but it is a signal to prioritize waist circumference management and lipid health through diet and exercise more proactively than someone without the variant.
Carriers of ≥ 1 copy of the rs9939609 A allele were significantly more likely to have IDF-defined MetS (35.8%) than non-carriers (31.2%), corresponding to a carrier odds ratio (OR) of 1.23 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01 to 1.50)... The association was related to a higher proportion of rs9939609 A allele carriers meeting the waist circumference criterion; a higher proportion also met the HDL cholesterol criterion compared with wild-type homozygotes.
Why this rating
Observational genetic association study with a large multi-ethnic sample but acknowledged limitations regarding population stratification and the need for replication.
Source
Association between the FTO rs9939609 polymorphism and the metabolic syndrome in a non-Caucasian multi-ethnic sample
Salam A Al-Attar et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2008
DOI 10.1186/1475-2840-7-5
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