ANYBODY who has never researched for a sweet or other comfort food when under pressure will know that stress can make you fat. However, new evidence is telling us that the fat we pile on when we are feeling stressed is of a different sort, and also a particularly damaging type, leading to a number of health problems. Thankfully this fat responds most readily to treatment.
Dr George Chrousos, who leads the reproductive endocrinology branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Maryland, has studied young women with depression. Chrousos defines stress as occurring when a person’s equilibrium is threatened by external or internal forces. In other words, how we react is as important as what happens to us. The physical and behavioural changes that result from stress are intended to deal with brief, controllable challenges. But prolonged stress is related to pathological diseases.
During the course of the research, he looked into known stress-related phenomena — that stress hormones interfere with reproduction in adults and growth in children, and that they affect immune function. They also found that fat cells deep in the belly were highly metabolically active and stored more fat than other cells because they have a higher number of receptors to the stress hormone cortisol than other types of fat cell.
“This is logical because we need fuel to deal with stressful events,” he says. “The fat is located near the liver to be turned into instant fuel; fat in your right calf is not going to help to fuel the stress reaction.” However, when stress is continuous, this mechanism does not turn off.
The situation gets further out of control when we react to nervous tension by eating. An expanding girth around the waistline, as opposed to the hips, therefore, increases stroke, heart disease, diabetes and breast cancer risks. It was also noted that the women studied were more prone to osteoporosis.
The good news, says Chrousos, is that this fat is highly responsive to dietary and lifestyle modifications. Because the fat is so metabolically active, changes can be made more readily than in fat which is metabolically fairly inactive, such as that on our thighs.
A LOCAL charity realised that it had never received a donation from the town’s most successful lawyer. A local volunteer calls to solicit his donation, saying, “our research shows that even though your annual income is over a million dollars, you do not give one penny to charity! Wouldn’t you like to give back to your community?”
The lawyer thought for a moment and said: “First, did your research show that my mother is dying after a long, painful illness and has huge medical bills far beyond her ability to pay?”
Embarrassed, the rep mumbled, “Uh, no.”
“Secondly, that my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair and is unable to support his wife and six children?”
The stricken rep begins to stammer an apology, but is cut off.
“Thirdly, that my sister’s husband died in a dreadful traffic accident,” the lawyer’s voice rising in indignation, “leaving her penniless with a mortgage and three children?”
The humiliated rep, completely beaten, said simply, “I had no idea.”
The lawyer then said, “... and if I don’t give any money to THEM, why should I give any to you?”
ANYBODY who has never researched for a sweet or other comfort food when under pressure will know that stress can make you fat. However, new evidence is telling us that the fat we pile on when we are feeling stressed is of a different sort, and also a particularly damaging type, leading to a number of health problems. Thankfully this fat responds most readily to treatment.
