Obesity Is Also a Disease

Cancer, Depression, Cardiovascular Disease …… How can all these chronic diseases be linked to it?

In today’s society, most people lose weight because “fat people don’t look good”.However, obesity destroys more than just looks.

Many people overlook the fact that obesity is a disease in itself.It not only reduces a person’s life expectancy by an average of 6-7 years, but also leads to a host of other diseases.Studies have shown that obesity can lead to metabolic disorders and put the body in a state of chronic inflammation, which further contributes to the development of metabolic complications.

Inflammation is a healthy defense response by our immune system to external stimuli.However, if the inflammatory factors persist and damage the tissues, the inflammation gets out of control and becomes chronic, which can lead to many health problems, such as diabetes.

It can be said that chronic inflammation is like a big invisible net, lurking in our body, gradually destroying our organs and causing a variety of diseases.

The immune system can’t hold up with the stress of obesity

When we eat, energy and nutrients rapidly enter the body, are processed and produce a large number of by-products.The useful functional products are then rapidly distributed to the organs and metabolized.During this process, many cells and tissues need to store nutrients and dispose of harmful intermediates.

In modern life, however, many people’s energy intake far exceeds their needs, thereby placing chronic metabolic stress on cells and tissues.For example, the pancreas secretes four to five hundred milliliters of enzymes every day to regulate the amount of energy we consume at each meal.If the pancreas is under chronic stress, it can malfunction.

Under such stress, if we keep eating consistently but lack exercise, our bodies can accumulate too much fat.And these fats can be tough to deal with, they are likely to promote chronic inflammation.

Clinical studies have already shown that when we gain weight, the adipose tissue that binds to immune cells releases warning signals that recruit white blood cells, the front line of the immune system.Adipocytes are almost like primitive immune cells that it can turn to when it’s in trouble,” says Gökhan S. Hotamisligil, a professor of genetics and metabolism at Harvard University.But if the stress continues, they can become harmful.”

Scientists have also found that the physical structure of fat cells is also linked to the inflammatory response.Ninety percent of a fat cell’s volume is triglycerides, making this bloated cell susceptible to stress that can cause it to burst and die.When overloaded with stored lipids, fat cells begin to lose their function and structural integrity.To the surrounding tissues, the spilled fat is the equivalent of toxic substances, at which point the immune system is activated to help clean them up.But in the long run, this interaction between metabolism and the immune system is extremely harmful.

As a result, obese individuals live in a chronic state of stress and inflammation.This abnormal immune response due to chronic energy overload is undoubtedly a major threat to health.

What other diseases are associated with chronic inflammation?

In fact, the presence of an inflammatory response should be a good thing; it represents that our immune system is working properly.But chronic inflammation that persists can be the root cause of many physical and mental illnesses.

In 2017, a clinical result published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the anti-inflammatory drug canakinumab reduced the incidence of cardiovascular disease in the population.The Phase III clinical trial, which included 10,061 present cases, demonstrated for the first time that a 150-milligram dose of canakinumab reduced the chance of vascular disease by 15 percent.Further results from the researchers showed that canakinumab reduced lung cancer mortality by 77 percent and significantly reduced the incidence of arthritis and gout.

This clinical trial has changed the way people think about inflammation.The authors of the study, Paul Ridker and Peter Libby, suspected that inflammation played a role in cardiovascular disease back in the 1980s.The prevailing belief at the time was that atherosclerosis was caused by the buildup of circulating fats (including cholesterol) in a patient’s arteries, but no one knew why or how plaque formed.

Libby believes that the immune system recruits white blood cells when cholesterol and bacteria cause any problems in the circulation.And adhesion molecules, which are naturally present on the endothelial cells of blood vessels, attract these white blood cells and stick them to the endothelium in the inner layers of the arteries.The localized accumulation of inflammatory cells and the buildup of fat-rich debris form plaques in blocked arteries, which can be said to be, themselves, the product of a chronic inflammatory response.

On top of that, many health problems that seem to have little to do with inflammation are revealing an increasing correlation with inflammation: a series of studies have found that many common chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, arthritis, asthma, gout, anemia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and depression, are indeed associated with low-grade chronic inflammation.

Many basic clinical and epidemiologic studies have confirmed that inflammation is a major risk factor for cancer.In fact, about 25% of cancers are promoted by chronic inflammation.For example, long-term chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori may increase the risk of stomach cancer, chronic hepatitis may increase the risk of liver cancer, and there is a positive correlation between HPV infection and the incidence of cervical cancer.

Chronic inflammation has also been linked to mental health issues such as depression.The effects of ongoing inflammation on the brain primarily lead to low mood, lack of pleasure and an inability to experience joy.A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed that about 1/3 of people with depression have high levels of inflammatory markers in their blood.Therefore, studying how inflammation affects depression can help us find better treatments for depression.

How do you address chronic inflammation?

In everyday life, chronic inflammation is closely related to the type and pattern of diet.

On the one hand, high-fat, high-calorie junk food can induce persistent inflammation, and lifestyle habits can affect the intake and absorption of nutrients in the diet, which in turn affects the body’s inflammatory state.On the other hand, certain foods can also reduce inflammation, but much of the relevant research is still preliminary data.Therefore, it remains to be seen whether these foods have anti-inflammatory effects.

However, researchers are now recommending well-rounded dietary structures such as the Mediterranean diet – a dietary pattern that includes foods such as olive oil, vegetables, fruits, fish, seafood, and legumes.Studies have confirmed that ingredients in fruits, vegetables, and nuts have significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, so the Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease.

Exercise can also improve chronic inflammation.When exercising properly, muscle contraction produces myocytokines that are helpful in improving chronic inflammation.In addition, exercise reduces the accumulation of fat in the abdomen, and correspondingly reduces obesity and obesity-induced chronic inflammation.Appropriate exercise intensity can also induce the production of protective proteins in the body, improve the body’s tolerance to free radicals and reduce the damage caused by inflammation.

The benefits of healthy eating and proper exercise are numerous, but one of the more realistic problems is that the preferences people have evolved due to food shortages run counter to these healthy habits.That is, most people know what they should be doing but are unable to act on it.For example, humans are naturally attracted to foods that contain sugar, salt and fat and find it hard to resist them.

So often, the solution to chronic inflammation may also depend on drugs.Scientists have now turned their attention from drugs that stop inflammation to a newly discovered class of immune signaling molecules called SPM (specialized pro-resolving mediator).Many animal models have shown that these fat molecules can reverse inflammation rather than stop it.Stopping inflammation requires suppressing the immune system, exposing the body to danger.Instead, SPM works in concert with the immune response to proactively address inflammation.Some progress has been made in related research, for example, scientists have found that SPM may be beneficial in the prevention of neurodegeneration.

But as it stands, we’re still a long way from a new type of drug.And chronic inflammation is likely already lurking in our bodies, so keeping our mouths shut and our legs open is a much more reliable way to deal with it for now, right?