I love comedies. Making a quality comedy is not easy. I sleuth comedies, often listening and enjoying them while hanging out in the shower. Gazing now and then at my fireplace inserted into the wall outside the shower. (Got it at Home Depot for $125 before the pandemic, lol, and then paid an electrician to put it in - what an inexpensive joy which I highly recommend if you can pull it off).
My favorite, latest amazing comedy is entitled “Family Secrets”. It was filmed in Poland. It’s hysterical.
I noticed nobody in the whole film was overweight! I watched it twice to try to find one overweight person. Nope.
This got me thinking.
There are Lots of Overweight People
While flying around the country, it looks like much of the US is overweight. Especially in the southern states, where sadly there’s a lot more severe heart disease.
Obesity is a planet-earth issue. Nearly two billion people worldwide are considered overweight. There are more than 600 million people worldwide with obesity.
What is obesity anyway? Obesity is accumulating a lot of excess body fat.
Obesity is diagnosed when a person's body mass index (BMI) is 30 or greater.
BMI is an imperfect measure. It doesn't account for underlying biological differences and can misrepresent an individual's health status.
Also, we have “no” framework for stratifying individuals according to their more precise obesity disease etiologies.
Thus, scientists are trying to figure out more details to discern which obese patients are in “trouble” from all this fat, and which ones are less inflamed and less at risk of various illnesses.
Two Distinct Types of Obesity
Scientists have identified two distinct types of obesity. Each with physiological and molecular differences. These differences may have lifelong consequences for health, disease, and response to medications and perhaps even supplements. Which functional docs use as tools to heal and balance body health.
These findings offer a “nuanced understanding” of obesity. Much more than current definitions.
This innovative obesity research comes from a team led by Van Andel Institute scientists.
It reveals new details about the role of “epi-genetics” as well as “chance” - (the fickle finger of fate) - in health and one’s future “safety”.
It also provides insights into the link between insulin and obesity.
These scientists discovered two main types of obesity:
One obesity subtype is characterized by “greater fat mass”.
The other was characterized by “both” greater fat mass as well as greater '“lean muscle mass”.
Surprisingly, the second obesity type also was “more” linked to increased inflammation, which can elevate the risk of certain cancers and other diseases. And, just not feeling well.
This second subtype seems to be epigenetically 'trigger-able,'. Meaning our toxic environment, air, food, and water may be part of this obesity phenomenon.
This second subtype is marked by higher lean muscle mass as well as higher fat mass, as well as high inflammatory signals, high insulin levels, and a strong epigenetic signature.
This means that our unhealthy environment is getting in on making us fatter and more inflamed.
Both subtypes were observed across multiple study cohorts, including kids.
Unexplained Phenotypic Variation (UPV)
About 30%-50% of human trait outcomes can be linked to genetics or environmental influences.
That means as much as half of who we are, is governed by something else. Wow.
We are somewhat part of the ‘greater isness’.
This phenomenon is called unexplained phenotypic variation (UPV).
In America, we pride ourselves on being individualistic. Rogues. One of a kind. Be all that we can be peeps.
But much of what we are or can be is also affected by that which is outside us. The world and planet we live in.
We are not islands unto ourselves.
Mother Earth matters. Even in our waistlines.
The study indicates that the roots of UPV likely lie in epigenetics, the processes that govern when and to what extent the instructions in DNA are used.
Epigenetic mechanisms are the reason that individuals with the same genetic instruction manual, such as twins, may grow to have different traits, such as eye color and hair color.
Many epigenetic influences begin with exposures to egg and sperm, mother’s milk, placental lining, cooking utensils that pregnant mom prepares food in, what pregnant moms eat or wear, such as perfume, etc.
The moral of these new 2 types of obesity is scientific observation: eat, live and wear as cleanly as possible. Especially before birth and during pregnancy (if possible).
Remember, also, that air is the new food. Filter your air. Get UV lights in your AC ducts.
Get back to basics:
How do you eat, what do you breathe, how do you eliminate?
Do you take supportive nutraceuticals?
What are your thoughts looping around in your brain?
How is your gut health and biome?
All of this matters to keep your fat stem cells from misbehaving.
Reference:
Independent phenotypic plasticity axes define distinct obesity sub-types. Nature Metabolism, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s42255-022-00629-2