"Energy in, energy out” used to be the common wisdom about staying healthy and active, but researchers are finding that genes play a key role in the risk for conditions like obesity and diabetes. A gene variant found in Pacific Islander populations is a prime example of this genetic link.
A decade ago, scientists began studying the genetics of 3,500 adult Samoans — at the time, the largest data set of Pacific Islander health. They discovered a variant in a gene called “CREBRF.” People from American Samoa, Tonga, and Hawaiʻi have all been found to carry this variant.
Nicky Hawley, an associate professor of chronic disease epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, is part of an advisory committee for a local initiative modeled after the “Make America Healthy Again" movement — popularized by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
It’s called MASHA, Make American Samoa Healthy Again. HPR talked to Hawley about her research, and why she calls the variant “the bane of her existence."
To learn more about the findings, click here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 9, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
