Weeks after week we discuss health topics and the relation to the brain. It seems a common motif is the story of inflammation and its role in knocking the body out of homeostasis.
Inflammation is a key factor in the body’s immune system. It is a signal to the body that something isn’t quite right, this could be a splinter or something more serious as arthritis or autoimmune diseases. Regardless, inflammation is a signal that launches your body out of homeostasis and demands a response.
Interestingly, excessive amounts of adipose tissue can induce a chronic low-grade inflammation. This constant low-level signalling prevents the body from operating at true basal levels, which when coupled to other factors can cause serious problems.
Interleukin 6 is a key cytokine in the inflammatory response that is well associated with cardiometabolic risks, such as coronary heart disease or metabolic syndrome. Other key inflammatory factors includes interleukin 1, interleukin 8, TNFα, leptin, and resistin.
Overeating induces metabolic overload and subsequent stress responses, like as previously discussed the inflammatory response, but as well as oxidative, organelle and cell hypertrophy contributing to the generation of vicious cycles that can be hard to break physiologically.
Insulin resistance is a key-marker in type II diabetes and the risk is significantly increased if an individual is obese. Adipocyte hypertrophy can induce inflammation, disabling the tissue’s ability to engulf fat which leads to fat depositing on other organs, especially the liver, which is vital for insulin regulation.
Excessive consumption of fatty foods (which is all too easy in western societies) induces oxidative stress, especially when antioxidant rich food is not eaten in conjunction with the fatty food; this contributes to inflammation attributed to obesity.
Diet and obesity alone are not fully responsible for the inflammation response, other factors are listed below:
- Circadian rhythm disturbances
- Age
- Gender
- Smoking
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Other psychological factors
It is clear there are environmental and genetic factors that contribute to an individual’s inflammation response and would therefore have a variable impact on the overall health of the individual.
It is clear obesity is a very important public health problem, especially in western societies. There is an obvious link between diet and overall lifestyle that can result in obesity. Unhealthy lifestyles can change one’s physiological response through inflammatory factors which are related to chronic degenerative diseases such as coronary heart disease. Although diet and excessive adipose tissue is an important factor in inflammation, there are other factors such as age, sex, sleep cycle, and smoking habits that play a significant role in the degree of inflammation.
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5507106/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2913796/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0185106316300737#fig0005
