obesity not directly linked to diabetes

[miriam_e]

Anybody else see the recent article in New Scientist about the new findings showing that the folklore linking diabetes and a number of other autoimmune problems with obesity is not really correct?

I have to say I'd been wondering about it for some time. It always seemed odd to me that some thin people get problems attributed to overweight, yet some overweight people are perfectly fine.

Well, it turns out that your body lays down fat in an attempt to protect you from too much food. This means that people who are able to store a lot of fat have a wide margin of safety, but people who are unable to store much fat in their tissues (like me) are in a very precarious position. If we non-fat people over-eat, our bodies are unable to mop up the fat from our bloodstream and this provokes screwy immune reactions, leading to diabetes, neuropathy, and other awful stuff. This is why some extremely obese people have very few, or even no problems, yet some thin people come down with full-blown symptoms. Anybody who exceeds their body's ability to safely store fat is in for problems. We just have to remember that we all have different limits.

For the first time in my life I look kind of "normal". I've always been extremely thin, but now my legs look good and I have a little smoothness about me. Well, now I've also developed early sugar intolerance and am losing the feeling in my feet with the first stages of neuropathy. So I need to go back to looking like a scarecrow, as my body is designed to be. And I need to do it fast.

Losing weight is harder than putting it on though. I'm down to eating only breakfast most days of the week, and two or three days in the week I'll have a vegetable dinner too. However, with such a small amount of food I'm walking a tightrope and need to be extremely careful of my nutrient intake. If my body was able to handle a bit more fat this wouldn't be so difficult, but we all wish for something different in that department, right?

Comments

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be safer just to eat less fat and sugar than eating so little? Eating very little can mess with ones metabolism, it could even make one hold weight.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I eat almost no sugar as it is, just the sugar in the sultanas in my meusli. I do get some fat in the milk on my breakfast, but that isn't much, and some fat is required, as certain ones can't be manufactured by your body (forgotten which ones just now).

Yeah, I do worry about that paradoxical effect where starving yourself can trigger emergency mode where your body tries to slow its metabolism so it can store fat to get you through hard times. I'm trying to avoid that. My mind needs to stay alert. Slowing my metabolism and fritzing mind right now is not what I want. I'm exercising gently, and eating sufficiently, erring slightly on the side of plenty, even though I know it doesn't sound like it. I have never needed a lot of food, but lately I'd been eating like a normal person. That's bad.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Wow. Yah you're right that doesn't sound like plenty, but if you say so.
There is also eating more complex carbs and avoiding the simple ones. I'm gonna guess you probably already thought of that though. :)
I hope you feel better quick like.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheh :) yep. I eat starches embedded in lots of soluble and insoluble fiber to slow their absorption. I am unsettlingly conscious of the incomplete state of our knowledge on nutrition though. I watch carefully for further things going wrong, while avoiding going hypochondriac. :)

Thank you for the concern and nice thoughts. I truly appreciate that.

diabeties etc.....

[jenna2.livejournal.com]

Now how wierd is this. You say not linked to being fat. My Dr.would disagree. As you are aware of my assorted health issues all directly related to being mobidly overweight.
You even spelled all the words correctly. My mother has the nueropithy in her feet and I have it in my thighs.
I have the diabetes type 2. All of theses issues and a few others that shall remain nameless where all due to excesive weight. Should I lose the excesive amount then according to the Dr. my health issue(s) will resolve them selves and no more medication.
You eat like a birdie.. Mims...;-)

Re: diabeties etc.....

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Well, it is related to weight, yes, but not directly. Eating too much causes your body to try to store the excess as fat to keep you safe. The fat is not the problem. Your doctor is wrong. The problem is the eating. I know people keep saying they are the same thing, but they aren't.

Here is a way to look at it:

Alice goes running every day and complains that her feet hurt.

Betty looks at Alice's expensive, cushioned, running shoes and says "There's your problem. You have running shoes on. I notice a lot of people who wear running shoes have sore feet."

Alice frowns at her friend, "No. If I had bare feet they would hurt much sooner. The running shoes protect my feet."

Betty shakes her head, "Well, why do so many people who wear running shoes have sore feet?"

Alice says, "They have runners because they run."

Okay, it probably isn't a great illustration, but I thought it up on the spur of the moment. :) The running is eating, the running shoes are the fat, and the bare feet are lack of fat, and the sore feet are diabetes and other crap.

Yep, I don't eat a heck of a lot, but it is still too much for me. Unfortunately I don't have the safety margin that a "normal" person has and the problem shows itself really early and dangerously. I can go from healthy to damaged very quickly because I can't lay down much fat to keep me safe. You are lucky in that your body has a greater capacity to protect you... though, like me, it seems you've just about used all that protection up too. :)

We both need to watch our intake it seems. :)

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

:) You're welcome, of course.
Yah, I'm conscious of how little we've come to understand it too. As an antidote I try to listen to my body, see what it says. That got us most of the way here so seems like a good thing.

Re: diabeties etc.....

[jenna2.livejournal.com]

um ok works for me.... have to stop eating poorly...well the Dr. wants me to modifie what and when I eat...so maybe your both right and I am not hearing everythiing correctly...hmmm selective hearing....G

Re: diabeties etc.....

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Nope. Your hearing's fine.

Until very recently most people thought it was the amount of weight that a person carried that was the important factor. The new findings show that isn't directly the problem as the ability to put on fat is actually a safety buffer that helps to protect you. Your doc (like most scientists, doctors, nutritionists, etc) probably thought that it was the weight that was the culprit. If it was just the weight then I'd be fit as a fiddle. I'm still skinny compared to most people, but am past my body's genetically determined maximum weight, so fat can't be mopped up anymore and is spilling into my blood, poisoning me.

You have a better margin for error than me, but if you exceed your maximum (sounds like you have) then you end up damaging yourself too.

In a sense it doesn't matter; for both ways of looking at it the fix is the same: eat less, especially of the wrong things, and be more active.

I don't eat much, and most of what I eat is okay, but I'm damnably inactive. I still have to cut back on food, but I must exercise more.

[xxclovergrrlxx.livejournal.com]

whaaat. you mean just because i'm skinny doesn't mean i can eat that whole cake and 50 chicken nuggets?

damn.

seriously though, interesting post here. i've always been worried about developing type 1 diabetes since my grandpa had it (and i'm thin and can eat whatever i want w/o gaining weight).

but you know, while diabetes is not linked to obesity, i'm pretty sure heart disease still is. and that is the #1 killer, not diabetes.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was always able to eat whatever I wanted without gaining weight. When you're young your body seems to deal with that fairly well, but when you get older it can cause problems. I still don't understand all the details, like why having fat loose in your bloodstream should provoke your immune system to go nuts and attack things like your pancreas... and is that what happens?

Diabetes is still linked with obesity, just not directly. It is linked more directly with eating too much and not exercising enough, which often (but not always) results in diabetes.

Heart disease can have a number of causes. I was astonished by the finding that bacteria have been found in the fatty deposits in blood vessels (calling them deposits is misleading -- it seems they are actually under the surface of the blood vessel). These bacteria turn out to be the same ones involved in tooth decay, and there looks like some kind of a link between gum and tooth problems and heart problems... though I don't understand why or how this works, maybe nobody does yet. How does the fat get there? People are fond of pointing the finger at cholesterol, but cholesterol is a normal building block that our bodies use to manufacture lots of other important things (for example the sex hormones). Statistically we can say that people who have a lot of cholesterol circulating in their blood are more likely yto have heart attacks... but why? And why would this normal substance end up in such abnormal amounts? What is out of whack that causes that. It is all very strange.

I'm willing to bet that it is related to this same problem with the body's inability to handle too much food. In our prehistory we would not have been presented with many opportunities to over-eat ourselves to death, so we are not likely to have evolved any protection mechanisms. Of course this is just my "gut feeling" (excuse the pun). :)