New Weight Study in Nature Medicine
A newly published study in the respectable Nature Medicine looked at the effects of stress on weight gain in mice.
It says that a chemical messenger called neuropeptide Y is turned on by stress. This “messenger” can be found in human fat. It increases appetite, causing you to eat more, resulting in an increase in weight. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Neuropeptide Y appears to be a very important factor in weight gain, as researches were able to disable it and noticed a dramatic decrease in fat generation even under stress. We are all under stress at times, it’s definitely good to try to “cheer up” - not just for psychological reasons as the article notes.
Does emotional stress make you fatter or thinner? Both. It appears that short-term, acute stresses may help you lose weight, whereas chronic stresses cause you to put on pounds, especially around your belly, where it’s most harmful.
A new study published this week in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine looked at the effects of stress on weight gain in mice. Investigators reported that chronic emotional stress turns on a peptide (chemical messenger) called neuropeptide Y, which is found in body fat. This hormone increases appetite, especially for carbohydrate-rich foods. It also causes your body to convert these calories into belly fat, a double whammy.
What’s especially interesting is that chronic stress alone didn’t have much effect on weight gain in only two weeks, nor did a high-fat, high-sugar diet. However, combining both together was especially toxic and markedly increased abdominal fat deposits in only two weeks.
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