Thrifty Gene Hypothesis: Challenges

Type 2 diabetes has in the past been claimed to be genetically determined. However, nongenetic metabolic effects including complex social determinants better explain the current epidemic of obesity and diabetes worldwide.

Keywords: thrifty gene hypothesis; epidemiology; type 2 diabetes mellitus; thrifty phenotype hypothesis

 References
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 Further Reading
    book Drever F and Whitehead M (1997) Health Inequalities. London, UK: HMSO.
    book Kuh D and Ben-Schlomo Y (1997) A Life Course Approach to Chronic Disease Epidemiology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
    book Marmot M and Wilkinson R (2000) Social Determinants of Health. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
    book Pickup JC and Williams G (eds.) (1997) Textbook of Diabetes. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science.
 Web Links
    ePath Social Science and Medicine. McDermott R (1998) Ethics, Epidemiology and the Thrifty Gene http://www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed
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How to Cite close
McDermott, Robyn(Sep 2006) Thrifty Gene Hypothesis: Challenges. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005854]