A new study from Harvard Medical School provides more evidence that diet-induced obesity hurts the hypothalamus, the brain region that drives your body’s energy usage and eating behavior.

As discussed here previously, a December 2011 University of Washington study showed that the hypothalamus in fat people is harmed by gliosis, a process leading to scarring.

This damage is possibly due to inflammation caused by eating a diet containing excess fat and/or energy (calories).  Rodents develop this brain damage after being fed a high-fat diet, so causation by diet appears certain, at least for mice and rats, if not humans. Continue reading →

Unfortunately, many, if not all, obese people are brain damaged.

The damage, detectable by brain MRI, is subtle but potentially significant, like that done by punches to boxers’ heads.

University of Washington researchers revealed in a new paper, co-authored by Stephan Guyenet, that obesity in mice, rats, and humans is associated with, and may in at least some cases be caused by, inflammation and gliosis (scarring) in the brain region that controls eating and body weight, the hypothalamus. Continue reading →