Last week in neurochemistry we talked about obesity and discussed all throughout the week if obesity was a brain disease or not. The article that was paired with the discussion last week was certainly interesting and discussed many of the chemical pathways and chemical consequences of being or becoming obese. We discussed the chemical effects of over nutrition and how repeated over nutrition can reinforce pathways that contribute to becoming obese.
I personally didn’t “buy” the claim that obesity was a brain disease and remained an outspoken proponent that obesity is a product of repeated negative choices or habits. If obesity is indeed a brain disease, it reduces the choices that we make down to near-robotic physical responses to neurochemical signals. This proposition cheapens the power of our choices and allows individuals to point blame at someone else, or something else.
Beyond the controversy and discussion caused by this article I found a claim of the paper to be incredibly surprising. The paper we read found a relationship between obesity and lowered IQ and significant structural changes in the brain. Another paper I found proposed that the structural changes were due to higher concentration of lipids in the blood getting into the brain and causing oxidative stress. We have seen time and time again throughout this semester that oxidative stresses are how many neurological diseases progress.
Not to trivialize this important topic and disregard the detrimental health effects obesity can cause, but I would like to leave you with this thought. What you see here is a picture of an MRI taken of a popular figure in today’s culture. Mr. Simpson here could be regarded as borderline obese and just take a look at how small his brain is.
Obese (Un?)Intelligence
