Is obesity just a metabolic error? Autoimmune disorders are also a culprit

The current mainstream medical view on obesity is that it is caused by abnormal body metabolism. However, in recent years, many scholars have argued that this condition, which causes people to lose their body shape, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and even cancer, is itself an "autoimmune disease." Will this argument affect people's strategies to combat obesity? And listen to the advice of a nutritionist.

Autoimmune diseases, obesity, and more are on the list

What do you think of when you hear the word "autoimmune disease"? Most people's answers are related to diseases such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, allergies and asthma, but Donna, an American science journalist who has long been concerned about health issues. Jackson. Donna Jackson Nakazawa clearly pointed out in her book that "obesity" is also a manifestation of many autoimmune diseases.

A study published in the electronic version of the journal Immunology in 2015 also showed that Yair Reisner, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, accidentally discovered an immune molecule called "perforin" while conducting experiments on mice with autoimmune diseases. The molecule can penetrate the cell membrane and kill diseased cells. He believed that if the dendritic cells in the animal's body lose perforin, T lymphocytes will increase excessively, triggering an inflammatory response in fat cells, leading to metabolic abnormalities and obesity.

Is the source of obesity autoimmune disorder or metabolic abnormality?

Domestic nutritionist Su Yanchen said that a normally functioning immune system can resist attacks from foreign pathogens and bad cells in the body and prevent illness. However, if a person is in a state of fatigue for a long time, or consumes fried and grilled foods for a long time that increase free radicals in the body, making the immune system busy all day long; or if a person suddenly suffers from serious infections and allergic diseases, the autoimmune system is prone to "crash" just like a concussion caused by a hard punch to the head, mistaking normal cells for enemies and attacking them violently, triggering a series of autoimmune diseases, and obesity is one of them.

However, when exploring the causes of obesity, we cannot simply look at it from the perspective of autoimmune system disorders. Obesity itself is a disease caused by abnormal fat metabolism. When the body accumulates too much fat for a long time, the free radicals increase significantly, which can easily cause chronic inflammation, thereby affecting the functioning of the autoimmune system, leading to hormonal imbalance, aggravating and accelerating obesity.

Simply put, obesity is the result of a vicious cycle of interaction between abnormal metabolic systems and abnormal autoimmune systems.

Break the vicious cycle of immune imbalance and metabolic abnormalities! 3 ways to avoid obesity

So, to avoid obesity, should we improve metabolic problems first, or solve the imbalance of the immune system first? Nutritionist Su Yanchen recommends three methods that can improve metabolic abnormalities and autoimmune system disorders at the same time:

1. Change your diet and lifestyle habits at the source of the problem: As for the "anti-allergic foods" that many people are frantically buying, no scholar or expert dares to guarantee that they are "100% effective". Even for the star health food "fish oil", many studies have only shown that it "may be effective" but not effective for everyone. Therefore, people do not need to be overly superstitious about the efficacy of such foods. In contrast, changing eating habits from the source of the problem, reducing fried foods, and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement vitamin C can enhance the body's antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capabilities, reduce the stimulation of free radicals, and naturally reduce immune disorders and metabolic abnormalities, thereby preventing obesity. In addition, a regular schedule can also help.

2. Do light to moderate exercise: Develop the habit of exercising at least 3 times a week, and the exercise should reach a light to moderate intensity of "maximum oxygen consumption x 60%" within 1 hour, which means you are slightly out of breath during exercise and can talk but cannot sing. Exercise can not only consume excess body fat and increase the body's metabolic rate, but also help balance the body's immune system.

3. Control your weight: Maintaining an ideal BMI between 18.5 and 24 will help block the vicious cycle between metabolic abnormalities and immune imbalance, and avoid gaining weight again or even gaining more weight.