Obesity And Inanition
March 17, 2009
Obesity & Inanition: What are they?
Obesity and Inanition are the antonyms; one is the direct opposite of the other in respects more than one. We shall deal with both, and find out their causes, symptoms, and remedies. Obesity, in simple terms, refers to the accumulation of extra flab or fat in the body owing to poor functioning of the body to burn the carbohydrate and proteins taken daily in the forms of food. Acute obesity can lead to diseases like diabetes and arthritis. Inanition, on the other hand, is the symptom of a person losing all interest on food. It can cause equally harmful ailments like “Anorexia Nervosa”, to mention one.
Acute Obesity: When does it occur?
Extensive research carried on rats has shown that in some of them there was a hereditary strain of obesity. It has further been understood that this form of severe or acute obesity is the result of the failure of fat mobilization in their adipose tissues.
Among human beings also similar failure leads to acute obesity. When this one-way process of synthesis does not perform, it leads to a continuous gathering of the fatty substances in the storage tissues. With time, the entire normal synthesis functioning process of the adipose tissues gets stalled leading to severe consequences and ailments like arthritis or diabetes, to mention but just two of the most common ones.
Inanition: Just the opposite of Obesity?
Obesity alone is not the issue. One should remain aware of its opposite syndrome, inanition. It also leads to serious consequences.
Inanition is the process when a person adopts a strong distaste for food. As a result, the body does not get the necessary amount of energy needed for metabolism. Inanition can be caused by many factors. They can be as diverse as forced, psychogenic and hormonal besides paucity of food due to natural factors like drought or man-made ones like war.
Many youth, in their pursuit for the slim body, go on a forced dietary regimen. This is typical of the young people, especially girls, in their teenage stage. Either they will go on hogging or they may artificially or forcefully restrict the natural urge to take food. Whether it is overeating or restriction, neither of them is ideal for the natural development of the body. As metabolism gets restricted, energy output from the input (food) is inadequate. Many models ultimately suffer from psychic state of Anorexia Nervosa “the typical condition when they totally lose all longing to eat. Many even get nausea at the very mention of the word” food.
Cachexia: The Severe form of Inanition?
Cachexia is severe inanition. This typical condition occurs when the central regulatory part of the human brain (hypothalamus) develops some lesions which are basically destructive by nature.
Obese people have a lopsided ‘feeding’ habit: Study
The ‘feeding’ habit of a person is determined by the call of the body to have input of energy. In simple terms, a person should feel hungry or have the inclination to eat only when the energy level of the body is low.
However, studies have found that this is not the case among obese people. Their feeding habit is similar. They keep on feeding (input) for no specific reason. The mere sight of food propels them to have it. They are drawn to food at any time just like bees are attracted to honey! This tendency is fraught with danger. The pressure on the adipose tissues rises. The extra carbohydrate and protein get accumulated! As the process goes on over a period of time, the metabolism mechanism of the body is adversely affected. So, there is a direct link between abnormal feeding habits and obesity as well as the phenomenon of abnormal rise in body weight.
