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| Sat, 05-22-2004 - 6:21pm |
May 17, 2004 (New Orleans) -- Blame it on the pressure.
No, we're not talking about a job or divorce, but about the epidemic of obesity in the western world. New research shows that one reason obese people continue to eat long after others have had their share is a defect in stomach pressure.
The flaw allows obese people to eat more before feeling full than people of healthy weight, says Jiande Z. Chen, MD, an associate professor in the division of gastroenterology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
"Normally when you eat a meal, the stomach relaxes automatically and there's no buildup of pressure in the stomach," he tells WebMD. "Then, at a certain point, after you've eaten enough, the pressure builds up and you stop eating."
But in obese people, the stomach relaxes much more than in lean people, Chen says. "They can consume much more food before the pressure goes up. And without the increased pressure, they don't feel full and can eat more."
In the U.S., about one in four people is now obese -- twice as many as in 1980. Obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, puts one at risk for a host of complications, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, and even early death.
Obese People Eat More
Working with researchers at the Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College in China, Chen studied 10 obese people and 11 lean volunteers.
First, they measured stomach pressure before the patients had eaten using a special tool known as an electronic barostat. A catheter with a balloon on one end is passed through the mouth and down to the stomach, and the balloon is inflated. As air is pumped in, a computer senses the pressure of the gastric wall against the balloon.
"The pressure before the meal was higher in the obese patients," Chen says.
Then, after everyone had eaten the same meal, they repeated the experiment. In both obese and lean people, the stomach relaxed and the volume of the stomach increased, he says.
But in the obese people, the increase in stomach volume was greater than in the lean people -- even though they all ate the same amount of food.
In other words, Chen says, the stomachs in obese patients can accommodate more food than in lean people.
Regulatory Nerves May Be to Blame
Barbara Lee Bass, MD, associate chairwoman for research and academic affairs at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, says the findings are "incredibly interesting."
"They found that in lean people, the stomach relaxes appropriately, the pressure rises, and they feel full. Obese patients could put much more food in their stomach before the pressure went up. Without that pressure, you don't feel full," says Bass, who moderated a news conference at the Digestive Disease Week 2004 meeting to discuss the findings.
The next step, she tells WebMD, is to figure out what causes the defect. The most likely culprit: an alteration in the nerves that regulate intestine functions that prevents the stomach from relaxing appropriately, she says.
Should that prove to be the case, the development of drugs that target the flaw could help obese people to curb their appetites, potentially making a dent in the epidemic of obesity, Bass says.
No, we're not talking about a job or divorce, but about the epidemic of obesity in the western world. New research shows that one reason obese people continue to eat long after others have had their share is a defect in stomach pressure.
The flaw allows obese people to eat more before feeling full than people of healthy weight, says Jiande Z. Chen, MD, an associate professor in the division of gastroenterology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
"Normally when you eat a meal, the stomach relaxes automatically and there's no buildup of pressure in the stomach," he tells WebMD. "Then, at a certain point, after you've eaten enough, the pressure builds up and you stop eating."
But in obese people, the stomach relaxes much more than in lean people, Chen says. "They can consume much more food before the pressure goes up. And without the increased pressure, they don't feel full and can eat more."
In the U.S., about one in four people is now obese -- twice as many as in 1980. Obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, puts one at risk for a host of complications, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, and even early death.
Obese People Eat More
Working with researchers at the Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College in China, Chen studied 10 obese people and 11 lean volunteers.
First, they measured stomach pressure before the patients had eaten using a special tool known as an electronic barostat. A catheter with a balloon on one end is passed through the mouth and down to the stomach, and the balloon is inflated. As air is pumped in, a computer senses the pressure of the gastric wall against the balloon.
"The pressure before the meal was higher in the obese patients," Chen says.
Then, after everyone had eaten the same meal, they repeated the experiment. In both obese and lean people, the stomach relaxed and the volume of the stomach increased, he says.
But in the obese people, the increase in stomach volume was greater than in the lean people -- even though they all ate the same amount of food.
In other words, Chen says, the stomachs in obese patients can accommodate more food than in lean people.
Regulatory Nerves May Be to Blame
Barbara Lee Bass, MD, associate chairwoman for research and academic affairs at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, says the findings are "incredibly interesting."
"They found that in lean people, the stomach relaxes appropriately, the pressure rises, and they feel full. Obese patients could put much more food in their stomach before the pressure went up. Without that pressure, you don't feel full," says Bass, who moderated a news conference at the Digestive Disease Week 2004 meeting to discuss the findings.
The next step, she tells WebMD, is to figure out what causes the defect. The most likely culprit: an alteration in the nerves that regulate intestine functions that prevents the stomach from relaxing appropriately, she says.
Should that prove to be the case, the development of drugs that target the flaw could help obese people to curb their appetites, potentially making a dent in the epidemic of obesity, Bass says.

You know, this may be a case of, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
Does the stomach pressure in an obese person not adjust properly because the obese person is used to eating more than they should? Or did the person become obese because of a faulty stomach pressure?
If the theory in the article
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