Not as easy or problem free as they’d have us believe
First, a couple of statistics: in the United States, which has a population of 300 million people, we have over 66 million who are technically defined as “obese.” This in not a criticism of their character or a slur against them, it’s a physiologic fact. “Obese” is defined as having a BMI—or Body Mass Index—of 30% or more. That means that to be obese, one’s body needs to be at least 30% fat by weight—an enormous amount by any measure.
Within this group of obese people is a subset known as the “morbidly obese,” with a BMI of 40 or greater. These are typically the people who weigh double or more their normal body weight. For example, a woman who is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds, but should weight 110 to be in the normal range, is morbidly obese. A man who is six feet tall should weigh about 175. If he is morbidly obese, that means that he weighs at least 280 pounds. In both cases, these people are at least 80 to 100 pounds overweight.
What are the consequences of being overweight? The popular press talks about appearance and heart disease, but more subtle and deadly diseases can follow from obesity. The biggest danger is from diabetes, which can come on because we’re overweight. This type of obesity-caused diabetes is referred to as Type-II diabetes, as contrasted to Type-I, or “juvenile onset” diabetes. The former comes from chronic obesity and lack of exercise, while the latter is generally caused by an overactive immune response (generally in childhood) to one’s own body organs.
Now for another statistic (I promise that this is the last one): over 12 million people in the US suffer from Type-II diabetes. Most of those who do don’t even know that they have it. They can live with the symptoms for years—symptoms which include
- Sweating
- Tiredness
- Constant thirst
- Irritability
- Hunger for sweet things
- Feelings of faintness
These symptoms occur because Type-II diabetics are producing too much insulin and have too little glucose in their bloodstream.
So how exactly—and without more statistics—does diabetes follow obesity? The mechanism is pretty straightforward. Your liver and your pancreas are the key players here. The stomach digests the food, while your small intestine absorbs the nutrients—everything from sugars and starches to proteins and fats. The liver converts what the body needs to glucose, while storing the rest as fat. The liver knows how much glucose the body needs through the signals it receives from the pancreas—signals in the form of insulin. The more insulin, the more glucose the liver pushes out into the bloodstream.
When you’re obese, you eat too much all the time. That means that the liver, overwhelmed, pushes out more glucose than the body needs. The pancreas, in an effort to keep up with all that glucose, pushes out more insulin than the body needs. As a result of this “insulin push,” the body’s cells become resistant to the signals. Insulin-resistant diabetes results.
Tags:
bariatric surgery,
body mass index,
diabetes,
glucose,
insulin resistance,
obesity,
type 2 diabetes
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This study was done with men at 50 years of age. They underwent glucose (blood sugar) tolerance testing. The men were followed-up at an average of 32 years later and found that men with insulin resistance were nearly one and a half times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other mental impairments.
