Researchers Proposes Alternative Reasons of Obesity

According to the World Health Organization, global obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. Obesity has been linked to a variety of factors, including increased dietary fat, carbohydrate or ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, inactivity, hyperlipidemia and hyperinsulinemia.

Based on these hypotheses, treatments including reduced consumption of suspected substances have been sought. Well-controlled studies have demonstrated that increasing UPF consumption is associated with increased food consumption and weight gain, whereas reducing UPF consumption is associated with weight loss in the same people. However, because the diets comprise various variables, these studies do not indicate a specific cause of obesity.

Barbara E. Corkey, Ph.D., professor emeritus of medicine and biochemistry at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, presents an alternate testable and actionable hypothesis/model about the origin of obesity in a new viewpoint. If confirmed, it could point to specific strategies to reverse obesity.

The efficiency with which humans burn and retain nutrients in response to overeating varies. Some people waste more energy by overeating and storing less. Those people have a hard time gaining weight. Humans’ reactions to food scarcity vary as well. Some people conserve energy better than others, and they don’t lose weight readily when they diet. “These are normal variations, and we’re all a little different because of genetics, but we respond to the same signals,” Corkey explained.

Her hypothesis proposes that obesogens (chemical compounds thought to disrupt normal development and the balance of lipid metabolism) introduced into the environment in the last 50 years cause misinformation in our bodies, such as inappropriate insulin secretion or hunger, which leads to obesity.

Obesogens, she argues, can cause redox changes (a typical indication of excess or demand for energy) that are unrelated to energy needs but falsely increase appetite or fuel storage when it is not required.

“The increasing incidence of obesity correlates with heightened consumption of UPF along with thousands of potential environmental toxins including some derived from fertilizers, insecticides, plastics and air pollutants. Identifying these agents would allow us to remove them or inhibit their ability to generate misinformation,” said Corkey.

If Corkey’s concept is validated, it has the potential to impact many, if not all, obesity-related disorders. Her paper investigates readily available methods for testing her model. She believes that the best conclusion of this endeavor would be the detection and eradication of obesogens. Treatments that limit their effect on the body’s regular regulating systems for insulin secretion would be the second best outcome.

Source Link