Obesity can be labeled a global epidemic. Childhood obesity, in recent years is on the rise. Over the last three decades, the number of overweight children has tripled. Parents and healthcare providers of these overweight and obese children are left to wonder, are these statistics a result of overeating and under activity, or is there another piece to the puzzle? A recent study may hold the key to understanding why some of our children are severely obese.

British researchers have just made a discovery that could change how the medical field looks at severe obesity in kids. Scientists say that they have discovered critical information that links severe childhood obesity to lack of DNA. The study, reported in Journal Nature, found that severely obese children are lacking significant pieces of their DNA that are responsible for letting the body know when it needs to eat and when it has had enough and should stop. Without this DNA component, affected individuals do not have the physical means to know when to stop eating.

The study looked at the DNA of 300 severely obese children. Candidates for the study had to meet certain criteria. They had to have reached a weight of 220 pounds by the age of ten. Researchers were searching for segments of DNA that could be missing, and they found it. In many of these children parts of chromosome 16 were missing. This is critical to understanding why these children overeat. Chromosome 16 is needed by the body to know when to stop eating. Without it the brain cannot let the body know when it is full, and uncontrollable urges to eat can occur. These children always feel hungry and feel the need to constantly eat.

According to those conducting the study, this finding is critical. In the past parents of severely obese children were often blamed for abuse in overfeeding their child. Now it appears in some cases, wrongly so. Researchers are hoping that with these new findings childhood obesity will take on a different light. They are hoping that attitudes in the medical community will change and that serious attention will be paid to childhood obesity. While this discovery explains some of the cases, there are still many more that are puzzling. More research is needed to fully understand causes of childhood obesity and what can be done to help these children.