We all know that obesity is the root of many evils including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, negative changes in gut chemistry and systemic inflammation. And now there’s evidence that overweight and obese children may suffer brain damage from inflammation by the time they are in their teens…
‘Proud fat girls’ show off their body-wide fat deposits and lumpy cellulite.
Can their false sense of well being be the result of brain damage?
Researchers with the Radiological Society of North America have discovered that obese children can experience changes in brain chemistry that can negatively effect fundamental cognitive and control functions.
What they found
“Brain changes found in obese adolescents related to important regions responsible for control of appetite, emotions and cognitive functions,” said study Co-author Dr. Pamela Bertolazzi, a PhD. student from the University of São Paulo in Brazil.
According to an abstract of the study report, “This pattern of damage correlated with some inflammatory markers like leptin, a hormone made by fat cells that helps regulate energy levels and fat stores. In some obese people, the brain does not respond to leptin, causing them to keep eating despite adequate or excessive fat stores. This condition, known as leptin resistance, makes the fat cells produce even more leptin. […] Worsening condition of the white matter was also associated with levels of insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas that helps regulate blood sugar levels. Obese people often suffer from insulin resistance, a state in which the body is resistant to the effects of the hormone.”
The takeaway
Bertolazzi noted that additional studies are needed to determine if the inflammation in young people with obesity is a consequence of the structural changes in the brain: “In the future, we would like to repeat brain MRI in these adolescents after multi-professional treatment for weight loss to assess if the brain changes are reversible or not.”
My take
Obesity, at any time of life is a very bad thing in a whole mess of ways – many of which we may not yet have discovered.The discovery that adolescent obesity may cause brain damage makes the situation all the more serious. Which it makes it all the more important to speak up against the normalization of overweight and obesity in our society. And don’t take seriously those who would trash talk you for ‘fat shaming’. They may have suffered a little brain damage of their own…
Bottom line
Just eat right and get your exercise. And, as Agatha Christie’s iconic detective, Hercules Poirot, might say: “Preserve the little grey cells!”
~ Maggie J.