2023-06-12 21:37:12
Obesity may damage the brain’s ability to feel satiety, reveals a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature Metabolism.
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These changes are even possibly irreversible, since even after losing weight, the brain of an obese person does not recover the ability to understand when the body is no longer hungry.
“This study demonstrates why obesity is a disease; it causes real changes in the brain,” says Dr. Caroline Apovian, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The study was conducted among 30 people considered obese and 30 others having a healthy weight. The 60 subjects were fed with glucose, lipids and water. These were ingested directly through the stomach through a tube, with the aim of eliminating the influence of taste and smell on hunger.
The day before the test, the participants ate the same meal and did not swallow anything else until the time of the test.
The researchers then used functional magnetic resonance imaging and single-photon emission tomography to capture the brain’s reaction over a 30-minute period.
Healthy weight VS obesity
The study aimed in particular to evaluate how fat and sugar would stimulate various parts of the brain related to the feeling of reward associated with food.
In people at a healthy weight, the striatum, the part of the brain involved in food motivation, slowed when sugars or fats were digested, demonstrating that the brain was recognizing that the body had been fed.
Additionally, dopamine level rose to a normal amount, a sign that the brain felt rewarded.
However, in obese people, brain activity did not slow down and the level of dopamine did not increase. This observation was particularly true during the ingestion of fats and lipids.
Irreversible damage?
In the three months following the first test, the obese subjects had to lose 10% of their weight. They then repeated the test to assess whether their weight loss would change their brain activity.
“Nothing has changed. The brain still did not recognize satiety or satisfaction,” explains Dr. Mireille Serlie, professor of endocrinology and editor-in-chief of the study.
“These results may explain why successful people often regain their weight over time. The impact on the brain may not be as reversible as we would like,” she adds.
However, the latter specifies that the results of this study must be interpreted with caution, since several data remain unknown. For example, it is not known when changes in the brain occur during weight gain.
Further studies will be needed to fully understand the impact of obesity on the brain.
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