Obesity- Inflammation

You've probably all heard of inflammation. If you've ever sprained an ankle, you've seen and felt inflammation. But inflammation also happens internally and can be chronic with obesity. There's been a huge amount of research into this area and the consensus is that fat tissue releases signals that cause inflammation.

Inflammation is a product of your immune system and is characterized by immune cell infiltration into tissue. The immune system is actually a 'fighting' or 'defense' system. Inherently, it is good. But realize that whenever there is a battle, there are casualties and damages to the surroundings. For example, if you've every watched a superhero movie (Spiderman, Batman, Superman etc. ), you know that as they fight the bad guys, cars are overturned, buildings are destroyed and there may be millions of dollars in damages to the city! The immune system is a great thing to have but when its always on, there is potential for massive physiological distress.

In obesity, there is chronic low grade inflammation. This alone is problematic, but it may also lead to insulin resistance. To refresh your memory about how nasty insulin resistance is, go back to this blog entry.

So this is how the vicious cycle goes:
You are obese. Your fat tissue generates chronic inflammation. This promotes insulin resistance. Insulin resistance makes it harder to lose weight.

We'll talk about ways to break this cycle in other entries.