New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Relationship Between Mindfulness and Decision Making Outcome

Despite the fact that mindfulness has been gaining a lot of interest and is now being researched in different fields to examine the relevance of it to both physical and psychological health, little to almost nothing has been done in relation to everyday decision making. The present study aims to examine the link of mindfulness and decision making, as well as to identify the possible socio-demographic variables linked to decision outcome. An online study was done (N = 199), where Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire was used to assess mindfulness and Decision Outcome Inventory was used for decision making outcome. Our hypotheses were not confirmed, as our findings did not reveal any links between sociodemographic variables and decision making outcome, hierarchical analysis did not reveal any predictive validity of FFMQ on DOI, and most of the facets of FFMQ were not statistically significantly linked to DOI. The one facet that was significantly correlated to DOI indicates that abstaining from judgements about our feelings and experiences is linked with a better decision outcome score. The findings provide information on the relationship between mindfulness and decision making, but at the same time, they emphasize the need for more research on the topic in order to draw stronger conclusions