New Delhi, July 04, 2007 (Wednesday) – A new study has revealed that stress carries a direct effect on fat accumulation, body weight and metabolism.  Scientists have successfully demonstrated that neuropeptide Y (NPY), a molecule the body releases during stress, can unlock Y2 receptors in the body’s fat cells, stimulating the cells to grow in size and number.  

By blocking these receptors, one can prevent fat growth or make fat cells to die as per Professor Herbert Herzog, director of the neuroscience research programme at Garvan Institute of Medical Research. 

Prof. Herzog said the finding basically showed that when we have a stress reaction, NPY levels rise in our bodies, causing our heart rate and blood pressure to go up. Chronic stress therefore has damaging effects.

Researchers have now figured out how to remove fat from one part of the body and make it grow in another part at least in mice and say their findings could benefit health as well as beauty.

"We have known for over a decade that there is a connection between chronic stress and obesity. We also know that NPY plays a major role in other chronic stress-induced conditions, such as susceptibility to infection. Now, we have identified the exact pathway, or chain of molecular events, that links chronic stress with obesity," Herzog said.

Interestingly, the study which Herzog has conducted along with scientists from the US and Slovakia shatters myths that stress-mediated fat gain is brain instigated and shows that it is actually just a physiological response of their fat tissue.

Dr Anoop Misra from Fortis Hospital said, "Obesity has been known to be a disease not due to diet but because of stress. Stress increases cortisol level secreted from the adrenal gland which has direct connection to fat accumulation."

For the study, scientists at Georgetown University fed normal diets and high calorie (high fat and high sugar) diets to stressed and unstressed mice. The mice on normal diets did not become obese. However, stressed mice on high calorie diets gained twice as much fat as unstressed mice on the same diet.

Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist, and Doctor in Complementary medicines, is of the view that mainly a person accumulates fat just because of wrong diet and so far stress is concerned, it also contributes in adding body weight.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Why_stress_can_lead_to_obesity/articleshow/2168397.cms
 

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