Table of contents:
- How can obesity affect the brain?
- Impact of obesity on brain function
- 1. Addicted to food and drinks
- 2. Trigger impulsive behavior
- 3. Disturbed response to stress
- 4. Increases the risk of dementia
- What can be done?
Obesity is if your body mass index value is above 27 kg / m2. This is a health problem that triggers a variety of deadly chronic diseases. Obesity can be overcome by doing a diet and adopting a healthy lifestyle. But in fact, apart from being physically dangerous, obesity can affect the brain and cause cognitive impairment, so obese individuals will find it more difficult to cope with.
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 is overweight. However, when you are obese, these habits tend to be more difficult to break and cause damage to the brain.
The first disturbance in the brain is experienced due to an imbalance of the hormones ghrelin and leptin. Obesity, along with unhealthy consumption habits, causes the body to secrete excess leptin. As a result, the body tends to feel hungry 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 they do not enjoy the taste of food less, and ultimately lead to obesity.
Furthermore, the condition of excess fat will damage various nerves of the brain, even changing the structure of the forebrain. However, this is only experienced by someone with obesity. When the body has too much fat, the brain's nerve protectors (myelin) tends to suffer incremental damage. The brain's nerves that are deprived of protection have a harder time conveying impulses from various parts of the body and brain, and as a result the brain cannot process various responses from the body optimally. One study also added that the brain nerve damage caused by obesity tends to occur in the front part of the brain. This condition is the main cause of decreased cognitive brain function in obese people.
Impact of obesity on brain function
Decreased brain function is common with age. However, 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. Addicted to food and drinks
Addiction is an event that is very closely related to the function of the brain in giving orders to carry out a repetitive activity, and the human brain naturally has an addiction to sweet and fatty foods. This addictive condition will get worse if a person 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 eat food in addition to hormonal reactions. However, in obese people, the brain tends to be slower to activate this part, so obese people tend to eat more food.
2. Trigger impulsive behavior
Impulsive behavior is behavior that tends to be "impatient" or not thinking long, and it is a major sign that a person has lost the ability to think clearly. Orbifrontal cortex is the part of the brain that regulates a person's behavior, but neurologists have found that it tends to be smaller than normal in obese children than in children of ideal weight. Size of part of the brain Orbifrontal cortex abnormalities may be the cause of impulsive behavior in obese individuals.
Damage to the brain due to obesity begins with inflammation of various body tissues, including the brain. If inflammation occurs in the brain, it can interfere with the development and recovery of brain tissue, causing abnormalities. Impulsive behavior can also be caused by bad habits of indulging in overeating, and is a side effect of obesity.
3. Disturbed response to stress
Not only is weight gain a trigger for the disorder, but losing weight too quickly in an obese person can also cause the brain to respond to stress in inappropriate ways. It stems from an inconsistent diet to lose weight, or to reduce too many calories that a person experiences binge eating . Starvation conditions can lead to 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 get rid of.
4. Increases the risk of dementia
As previously explained, inflammation of the brain is severe enough, it even triggers dementia, or what is better known by the layman as "dementia". The brain as a balance to body development will be damaged more quickly if the body has accumulated fat in certain parts, which is known as central obesity. The condition of a distended stomach makes various hormones unstable and the brain experiences a very heavy workload to balance them. As a result, there are various damage to brain cells so that the brain size becomes smaller and triggers a decrease in various cognitive functions, one of which is dementia.
What can be done?
Regardless of various conditions or impaired cognitive function of the brain, obesity remains a modifiable risk factor for degenerative diseases. Regardless of the age of someone who is obese, adopting a healthy lifestyle still needs to be done as an effort to prevent degenerative diseases and their complications. Implementing a healthy lifestyle gradually and consistently and keeping your weight from increasing again is the most important thing in overcoming obesity.
