Contents:
- Medical Video: The Effects of Childhood Obesity
- How can obesity affect the brain?
- Impact of obesity on brain function
- 1. Add food and drink
- 2. Triggering impulsive behavior
- 3. Impaired response to stress
- 4. Increases the risk of dementia
- What can be done?
Medical Video: The Effects of Childhood Obesity
Obesity is if your body mass index value is above 27 kg / m2. This is a health problem that triggers various deadly chronic diseases. Obesity can be overcome by dieting and adopting a healthy lifestyle. But in reality, besides being physically dangerous, obesity can affect the brain and cause cognitive impairment, so obese individuals will be more difficult to overcome.
How can obesity affect the brain?
Obesity is a complex problem, triggered by various risk factors that are not only dietary but also environmental. The brain's response to sweet and high fat consumption patterns also plays a role in forming unhealthy habits since a person experiences obesity. However, when experiencing obesity, these habits tend to be more difficult to eliminate and cause damage to the brain.
The first disturbance in the brain is due to an imbalance of the hormones ghrelin and leptin. Obesity, along with unhealthy consumption habits, make the body do the secretion of excess leptin hormone. As a result, the body tends to feel hungry for longer because the brain does not respond to the hormone ghrelin which signals satiety. The high leptin hormone also causes a person to eat more because he does not enjoy the taste of food, and ultimately leads to obesity.
Furthermore, the condition of excess fat will damage various brain nerves, even changing the front brain structure. However, this is only experienced by someone with obesity. When the body has too much fat, brain nerve protection (myelin) tends to suffer little by little. The brain nerves that lose protection will be more difficult to convey impulses from various parts of the body and brain, and consequently the brain cannot process various responses from the body optimally. A study also added, brain nerve damage caused by obesity tends to occur in the front of the brain. This condition is the main cause of decreased brain cognitive function in obese people.
Impact of obesity on brain function
Decreasing brain function is a natural thing that happens with age. However, the condition of obesity can accelerate the decline in brain function, and if left untreated it can become a permanent disorder at a younger age. Here are some cognitive disorders that can be observed in someone with obesity:
1. Add food and drink
Feeling addicted is an event that is very closely related to brain function in giving orders to do a repetitive activity, and the human brain naturally has already been addicted to sweet and fatty foods. This addictive condition will get worse if someone is obese. Consumption of food or drink will activate a part of the brain known as stratium, which also plays a role in giving orders to consume food in addition to hormonal reactions. But in obese people, the brain tends to be slower in activating that part, so obese people tend to eat more food.
2. Triggering impulsive behavior
Impulsive behavior is a behavior that tends to be 'impatient' or not thinking long, and this is the main sign that a person loses the ability to think clearly. Orbifrontal cortex is a part of the brain that regulates a variety of behaviors, but neurologists find that these parts tend to be smaller than normal in children who are obese compared to children with ideal weight. Size of the brain Orbifrontal cortex abnormalities are probably the cause of impulsive behavior in obese individuals.
Damage to the brain due to obesity starts with inflammation in various body tissues, including the brain. If inflammation occurs in parts of the brain, it can interfere with the development and recovery of brain tissue resulting in abnormalities. Impulsive behavior can also be caused by bad habits obeying the willingness to overeat, and is a side effect of obesity.
3. Impaired response to stress
Not only does weight gain trigger a disorder, but too rapid weight loss in obese people can also cause the brain to respond to stress in an inappropriate way. This starts from a diet to lose weight inconsistently, or reduce too many calories so that a person experiences binge eating. The condition of starvation can trigger overeating when a person experiences stress. If this becomes a habit, the brain will always give orders to eat very much in an effort to deal with stress, and this will be very difficult to eliminate.
4. Increases the risk of dementia
As previously explained, inflammation of the brain is quite severe damage, even triggering dementia, or better known by lay people as "senile". The brain as a counterweight to the development of the body will be more quickly damaged if the body experiences accumulation of fat in certain parts, or known as central obesity. The condition of the distended stomach makes various hormones unstable and the brain experiences a very heavy workload to balance it. As a result, there are various damage to brain cells so that the size of the brain becomes smaller and triggers a decrease in various cognitive functions one of which is dementia.
What can be done?
Apart from various conditions or impaired cognitive function of the brain, obesity remains a risk factor for degenerative diseases that can be modified. Regardless of the age of someone who is obese, implementing a healthy lifestyle still needs to be done as an effort to prevent the occurrence of degenerative diseases and their complications. Applying a healthy lifestyle gradually and consistently and maintaining weight so as not to back up is the most important thing in overcoming obesity.
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