Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0311277 (abdominal obesity)
 2,792 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Recent research has indicated that visceral obesity is associated with multiple endocrine disturbances. Insulin resistance, as well as visceral fat accumulation, may be consequences of these abnormalities. The complex endocrine aberrations are probably of central origin, and suggest a neuroendocrine background with a "hypothalamic arousal" syndrome. Such a syndrome has been found after excess alcohol intake, tobacco smoking, and certain types of stress reactions. Subjects with visceral obesity might be characterized by a high prevalence of such factors, although only indirect evidence is available for the stress component, maybe caused by a poor socioeconomic and psychosocial situation. In primate experiments, a submissive stress reaction is followed by a syndrome essentially identical to that seen in humans with visceral obesity, including visceral fat accumulation. These observations strongly support a similar chain of events in humans. Recent studies have indicated several abnormalities in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of catecholamines and neuropeptides. In particular, serotonin metabolites and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) concentrations are apparently lower than normal. In women with visceral obesity, these low concentrations are associated with food choices that indicate a preference for carbohydrates. This finding emphasizes the importance of serotonin agonists in the treatment of human obesity. It seems possible that such drugs may have effects on metabolic and other symptoms particularly prevalent in abdominal obesity, and that these effects might be independent of the decrease in energy intake. It would seem highly desirable to explore these possibilities further. Such observations may also provide a link between the abnormalities of low serotonin and CRF concentrations in the central nervous system on one hand and peripheral metabolic and other abnormalities on the other.
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PMID:Neuroendocrine abnormalities in human obesity. 753 80

The effects of adrenal corticosteroids on subsequent adrenocorticotropin secretion are complex. Acutely (within hours), glucocorticoids (GCs) directly inhibit further activity in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, but the chronic actions (across days) of these steroids on brain are directly excitatory. Chronically high concentrations of GCs act in three ways that are functionally congruent. (i) GCs increase the expression of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) mRNA in the central nucleus of the amygdala, a critical node in the emotional brain. CRF enables recruitment of a chronic stress-response network. (ii) GCs increase the salience of pleasurable or compulsive activities (ingesting sucrose, fat, and drugs, or wheel-running). This motivates ingestion of "comfort food." (iii) GCs act systemically to increase abdominal fat depots. This allows an increased signal of abdominal energy stores to inhibit catecholamines in the brainstem and CRF expression in hypothalamic neurons regulating adrenocorticotropin. Chronic stress, together with high GC concentrations, usually decreases body weight gain in rats; by contrast, in stressed or depressed humans chronic stress induces either increased comfort food intake and body weight gain or decreased intake and body weight loss. Comfort food ingestion that produces abdominal obesity, decreases CRF mRNA in the hypothalamus of rats. Depressed people who overeat have decreased cerebrospinal CRF, catecholamine concentrations, and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal activity. We propose that people eat comfort food in an attempt to reduce the activity in the chronic stress-response network with its attendant anxiety. These mechanisms, determined in rats, may explain some of the epidemic of obesity occurring in our society.
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PMID:Chronic stress and obesity: a new view of "comfort food". 1297 24