Everybody knows that being overweight isn’t “good” for you. The crazy part is that although obesity is linked to many diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, depression, dementia and many others, the evidence has been scarce as to why this occurs and more importantly uncovering what drives these interactions.
Until now.
Research is beginning to unravel the ‘whys’ and ‘how’s’ of obesity. One of the most significant revelations is that researchers have found that fat is not just a passive by-product of overeating; they have shown that body fat actually produces many inflammatory chemicals. This means that fat is not just a reservoir of excess calories waiting to someday be used as fuel when calorie intake runs low. It means that fat itself acts like an ‘organ of inflammation’, producing many of the chemicals responsible for creating a low-grade systemic (or system-wide) inflammatory state in the body. These same inflammatory chemicals cause or exacerbate many diseases, including those listed above in addition to insulin resistance and obesity itself.
This means that being overweight or obese is actually an inflammatory disorder in and of itself and that the inflammation created by excess body fat is one of the underlying reasons that being overweight or obese predisposes a person to diseases such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, heart disease, depression, Alzheimer’s and cancer, to name a few. This remarkable advancement in scientific research provides a very, very compelling reason to lose weight (if you needed another reason): being overweight or obese is killing you – not because it wears you down, but because it wears you out; it is literally stealing away your life from the inside out. And it’s killing you slowly, creating a slow, painful progression to an early demise.
If you’ve tried everything and just can’t seem to lose weight, you may be trying the wrong things. For a fresh perspective, take a look at www.optimalbodybalance.com.
