The Epigenetic Memory of Obesity Explains a Chronic Disease
Fat cells don’t forget. That simple fact comes from new research published in Nature yesterday which explains a fundamental truth about obesity that eludes most people in their thinking about this condition. It is a chronic disease. Fat cells have an epigenetic memory for obesity they retain even when people lose a lot of weight.
This is why obesity is a chronic disease that requires ongoing care. It’s the reason there should be no surprise that lost weight returns when people stop taking obesity medicines.
A Bookmark for Obesity
Laura Hinte and colleagues studied RNA sequences in the adipose tissues of both humans and mice. They found epigenetic changes in these tissues related to living with obesity. Those changes remain in place as an epigenetic memory for obesity, even after significant weight loss in both mice and humans.
They are like a bookmark for obesity. It helps the body remember where it was before weight loss.
Professor Ferdinand von Meyenn was the senior author on this paper. He explains:
“Our study indicates that one reason maintaining body weight after initial weight loss is difficult is that the fat cells remember their prior obese state and likely aim to return to this state.
“The memory seems to prepare cells to respond quicker, and maybe also in unhealthy ways, to sugars or fatty acids.”
This Is How Our Bodies Work
People who have tried to lose weight know this is true. They joke that they keep losing weight and it keeps coming back to find them. Obesity is a chronic disease.
Yet much of the discourse about weight loss implicitly denies it. Many people believe they should be exempt from this fact. They somehow expect their strength of will and character will shield them. But it seldom does.
Remember this. Fat cells don’t forget. It’s not a flaw, it’s how our bodies work. We can deal with it.
Click here for the new study, here, here, and here for further perspective.
Memories of the Caucasus, painting by Oleksandr Bogomazov / WikiArt
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November 19, 2024
November 20, 2024 at 12:40 am, David Brown said:
The article begins, “…the body seems to retain an obesogenic memory that defends against body weight changes. Overcoming this barrier for long-term treatment success is difficult because the molecular mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon remain largely unknown.”
Actually, the mechanisms have long been elucidated. Regain is due to failure to address the issues that gave rise to obesity in the first place. For example, “Endocannabinoids and their G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) are a current research focus in the area of obesity due to the system’s role in food intake and glucose and lipid metabolism. Importantly, overweight and obese individuals often have higher circulating levels of the arachidonic acid-derived endocannabinoids anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) and an altered pattern of receptor expression. Consequently, this leads to an increase in orexigenic stimuli, changes in fatty acid synthesis, insulin sensitivity, and glucose utilisation, with preferential energy storage in adipose tissue.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3677644/