In most health and longevity “stuff” obesity gets a lot of press for being such a negative–the biggest cause of disease. Yes, it is correlated with many bad processes and outcomes. But…Maybe it’s just me, but surely someone else out there asks the question, WHY?
I’m clearly in the camp that pretty much everything that goes wrong in aging humans (and animals) is A) caused by rampant inflammation or B) has a big inflammatory component. And we know that full fat cells put out a host of inflammatory chemicals. So why doesn’t anyone just talk about the inflammation instead of the obesity? Not that obesity is the only thing that causes chronic inflammation…Admittedly it’s a biggie. I’d really like to hear from others who think harping on obesity as “the” cause of bad consequences misses the point that it’s just one of MANY things in our culture that crank up chronic inflammation. (…to name a few: sugar, insulin, poor sleep, stress, toxic water, air, food supply, nutrient deficiencies, gut problems, social isolation…and so on…)
I was reinforced in this view recently by Matt Kaeberlein’s report of treating frozen shoulder (inflammatory to the max) with rapa. Pretty obvious that rapa is anti-inflammatory, But so is Omega 3 oil–and it’s almost instantaneous. I consider both as first aid for chronic inflammation because I can’t figure how in this day and age to avoid the myriad of things against us. But obesity is just one of many of those inflammatory things that keep people aging badly. Personally, I suspect sugar is more inflammatory but that’s just a guess. Meanwhile, I’m betting that testing CRP is the best way to know how you’re going to age. Yes, lose some weight, get enough sleep, clean up your diet etc…but rapa helps, Omega 3 helps and let’s not blame obesity as if the inflammation it causes is not what’s doing the damage.
I agree there’s more going on than simply weight.
I like the ideas behind the Personal Fat Threshold Hypothesis. It’s a bit more nuanced than just obesity and considers where fat is primarily stored (visceral v subcutaneous) as being a big part of how much the type of adipose tissue a person has contributes to inflammation and disease. According to the hypothesis an individual who stores fat primarily in the subcutaneous space can tolerate having more fat on their body without as many negative consequences. I admittedly gravitate toward the hypothesis because it explains my personal experience. If it’s true though it would explain why some people can be relatively healthy in the overweight/obese range while others experience negative metabolic consequences at a normal weight/bmi.
In the personal fat threshold hypothesis if a person exceeds the amount of adipose tissue their individual body can safely store then that leads to glucose and fat overflowing into the blood stream. It’s certainly eloquent and simple although I don’t know if it’s necessarily true. Think of it as all storage tanks are full and the excess fuel has nowhere else to go except into the blood. I read about this hypothesis through Marty Kendall’s Optimising Nutrition site last year and later learned I have the genetic predisposition to store visceral fat so it explained why I historically had borderline glucose and higher lipids at a middle of the road BMI.
I think this premise is too simplistic to explain the negative impact of obesity. There would be several steps that lead to that. Hormonal impact of obesity is a big part of the pathology.
I listened to a podcast with Jim Kirkland the other day. I can’t find the link. What led him to study cellular senescence was his interest in adipose tissue. Fat cells apparently put out a lot of inflammatory signals. He determined that in obese mice, getting inflammation down in the adipose tissue improved health even when the mice remained obese. Removal of senescent cells from the adipose tissue of type 2 diabetics may quickly improve their health.
We must be related LOL. Same here. Mine were always within the normal limit but at the edge of normal and can very easily store/get fat, and also somewhat easy (though more difficult than storing) to lose fat also.
IMO we are not talking enough about obesity bc it’s often associated with body shaming in our culture instead of being presented as illness caused by inflammation, metabolic syndrome, etc. Surprisingly, obesity is even promoted. Look at the obese “models” cat walking to sell famous brands.
Yes i have found Rapa to be anti-inflammatory (though mildly and not significantly) but have never been able to conclude that omega-3 in form of supplements were anti-inflammatory for me. However, if I consume food that is loaded with omega 3’s (i.e. wild salmon, flax seeds etc…) I can easily detect their anti-inflammatory effect.
I also happen to believe that inflammation is being used as an easy target to blame for everything that ills humans. I have my doubts. I am probably one of people prone to worst form of inflammation to the point that there are times I can barely close my fist 100% because of fatness /inflammation of my fingers, yet I have NEVER been sick (not even a cold or flu), and I have never had any of my biomarkers out of the normal range. This at the other end of the spectrum “might” actually be beneficial in keeping one healthy. After all inflammation is mainly overreaction of our immune system in trying to protect us, and in my case it could be luck (that I’ve never been sick) but if luck is ruled out then it’s got to be my immune system doing its job since I’m NOT particularly following very healthy habits (rarely exercise, eat almost anything including burgers and fries and ice cream, and I am a bit overweight).
They can promote it as much as they like but still not pleasing to the eyes lol at least to my eyes, can’t speak for all men, as my father loved meat on the bones women.
Dr Loh said “ectopic fat” was fat in the wrong places, such as visceral fat. That can include fat under the abdominal wall and in the organs (liver, pancreas). It also included fat in the heart and in the muscles (contributing to insulin resistance).
The ectopic fat did not have good blood flow so it was unhealthy, and “called out” to the immune system causing ongoing inflammation. And being in the organs interfered with organ function, which as insulin production by the pancreas. And glucose uptake by the muscles.
The fat went ectopic once the normal fat storage was full. The “normal” storage was different for each person (fat threshold). It might be genetic combined with fatness in youth. Fat under the skin (subcutaneous) is not unhealthy but if a person is obese with only subcutaneous fat, is is likely they will progress to unhealthy eventually, she said.
Dr Loh said the ectopic fat is the last laid in and the first out. And HIIT exercise was particularly effective at reducing visceral fat.
I have low body fat but what little I have is visceral. I was skinny as a kid. Rapa and FMD have made a big difference.
I think what happens is that when stem cells fail to differentiate properly and sit around in a senescent state they partially function as adipocytes and that is a nuisance.
While I completely agree that obesity needs to be seen as an illness, I see it as a simple too many calories in problem. Inflammation and metabolic syndrome may be result of, not cause of, obesity.
Some diseases do cause weight accumulation and obesity (insulin resistance, uncontrolled high cortisol, under active thyroid, etc.). Some medications cause weight gain (steroids, hormonal birth control, antidepressants, etc). Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between cause and result. Obesity is definitely a serious condition and should be addressed accordingly. Almost half of the US population is obese. It’s a BIG problem that affects longevity.
What we all want to try to avoid: The accumulation of subcutaneous, and visceral fat…
Visceral fat cells becoming senescent is a driver of metabolic syndrome, and removing those cells was found to alleviate some of the associated problems in a murine model [1]. Further work has found that these senescent fat cells lead to an increase in insulin resistance [2], the core driver of type 2 diabetes. Targeting these cells was found to alleviate insulin resistance in mice as well [3].
However, this paper notes that little research has endeavored to find what, precisely, is driving these fat cells to become senescent to begin with. Cells can be driven senescent through a large number of very well-explored factors, including toxins, radiation, the activation of cancer-related genes, telomere attrition, and oxidative stress. Oxidation, particularly of lipids (fats), is this paper’s focus.
Oxidating the membrane lipids of cells creates a class of compounds known as enals [4]. In a murine model of obesity, prior work found that these enals accumulate to surprisingly high levels in visceral fat [5]. This pro-senescent environment is accompanied by the downregulation of the enzymes that would normally impede this accumulation [6].
It’s the outlier response towards hyperpalatable foods. Some people can’t stop eating easy to eat, cook or ready-made, inexpensive food, that’s also having a euphoric response sometimes. They also want to eat it often.
It’s an evolutionary battle of the food companies vs. the pharmaceutical companies. Eventually the food companies if allowed will include natural GLP-1 oral antagonists to block out the effect of ozempic. That’s something that will happen on its own from their food optimization process, even if it won’t be explicit. Every industry is their own Michael Lustgarten. He optimizes aging. They optimize $$$.
The food companies shouldn’t be blamed totally either: people have learned to cook food that work in similar ways. There’s no real difference from a ‘homemade pizza’ and elsewhere.
Indeed, my husband has a hard time with gravitating towards hyper palatable foods that hit the bliss points. I have to cook a little bit differently for him to find a balance between healthy and tasty enough to meet his criteria of a decent meal. When you’ve been raised on ultra processed foods and eaten them for 50+ years it’s a challenge to retrain the brain and taste buds and requires discipline and motivation.
