Comments on: Fat Body = Not Fat Head? https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/ Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:38:17 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Jared https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543229 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:38:17 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543229 Try not to be “serious as a heart attack” about it, though…

]]> By: mathyoo https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543228 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:29:24 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543228 Damn, I guess I better get serous about dropping weight and keeping it off, then!

]]> By: Jared https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543227 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:10:32 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543227 Mathyoo, according to the research I’ve seen in animal models, no. The good news is that getting to that healthy weight stops further degeneration.

Another fun study:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2009.04.002

]]> By: mathyoo https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543226 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:50:26 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543226 And is it reversible? If an obese person changes their lifestyle and achieves a healthy weight, does the brain adjust?

]]> By: catgirl https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543225 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:36:56 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543225 This study is interesting, and I wish I still had access to journals to read the actual study. However, the study involved 94 people in their 70s, so I’m careful about jumping to conclusions for the rest of the population. The direction of causation is not clear. Some of the regions affected involve memory, planning, and sensory processing, which could possibly make those people more prone to overeating. I’d like to see the study repeated in a larger group of people from all age groups, and I’d also like to see a longitudinal study to see what affect gaining or losing weight has on brain size.

]]> By: Wayne Robinson https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543224 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:27:15 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543224 Could it be related to obstructive sleep apnoea? Sleep apnoea is increased in the obese and overweight, and perhaps the periodic anoxia at night might affect brain cell survival.

]]> By: ebohlman https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543223 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:52:49 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543223 Did they control for height? Remember that obesity/overweight is determined by BMI, which is linearly proportional to weight and quadratically inversely proportional to height. Therefore, a small difference in height between two people of the same weight will result in a much bigger difference in BMI than a small difference in weight between two people of the same height. We tend to ignore the influence of height on BMI because it’s not a factor that an adult can control, but it’s still present.

So if there’s a positive correlation between height and brain mass (and I vaguely recall that there is, probably influenced by nutrition in childhood), then you could see a negative correlation between BMI and brain mass.

]]> By: sailor https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543222 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:26:08 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543222 Thanks for the info.

]]> By: Jared https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543221 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:52:53 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543221 Actually, it’s looking like high-fat diets lead to neurological inflammation in the brain which results in low oxygen and nerve death. This is actually being investigated by Dr. Morrison at Pennington Biomedical in Baton Rouge.
http://www.pbrc.edu/About_Us/The_Explorers/Faculty_Bio.asp?EmployeeID=847

]]> By: sailor https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543220 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:30:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/26/fat-body-not-fat-head/#comment-543220 Scary eh?

There has been some research recently that when cells are mildly stressed (ie by starving a day a week) they stay healthier and reproduce better. Could this in any way be a sort of converse?

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