Obesity changes brain chemistry: new research in healthcare

According to recent medical research, obesity may permanently alter how the brain responds to food consumption, leading some doctors and public health professionals to demand for insurance to cover drugs for obesity.

According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 31% of people in America are medically overweight and over 42% of individuals in the United States have an obesity diagnosis. Since 2000, the prevalence of obesity among adults, kids, and teens has steadily increased.

Researchers and experts in obesity medicine from Yale School of Medicine discovered that even after medically obese patients shed weight by diet and exercise, they still had a nutrient-sensing deficit.

The research, which was published in the journal Nature Metabolism, focused on the striatum, a section of the basal ganglia that governs the motivational components of food intake that control eating behaviour. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that controls mood, pleasure, and pain, was also being measured by the researchers in the subjects.

Body-mass index, or BMI, was used to divide the participants into “lean” and “obese” groups. Participants were fed through a feeding tube to avoid the oral enjoyment of eating and concentrate solely on nutritional intake.

When fed with both carbohydrates and fats, lean research participants were shown to have decreased striatal activity and increased dopamine levels, resulting in feelings of fullness or satiation.

“People still think obesity is caused by a lack of willpower,” Mireille Serlie, lead author and investigator in the study, told SciTech Daily. She explained, however, that the results have “shown that there is a real difference in the brain when it comes to nutrient sensing.

“This may be why people overeat despite the fact that they’ve consumed enough calories. And importantly, it might explain why it’s so hard to keep weight off,” Serlie said.

Over half of the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2035, according to estimates from the World Obesity Federation and the World Health Organization. This might cost as much as 3% of the world GDP yearly, or about the same as what would be spent on COVID-19 in 2020.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright