THE STRESS MANAGER ...

STRESS AND OBESITY, AGAIN

Obesity is back in the news, this time with a new and interesting twist.
We knew that poor diets, lack of exercise, and stress were major factors in causing obesity. Now, a study released this month pro-
vides new evidence that a common virus may be a contributing factor to obesity.
“We’re not saying that a virus is the only cause of obesity, but this study provides stronger evidence that some obesity cases may
involve viral infections,” says study presenter Magdalena Pasarica, M.D., Ph.D., of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a
campus of the Louisiana State University system.
“Not all people infected will develop obesity,” she notes. “We would ultimately like to identify the underlying factors that predispose
some obese people to develop this virus and eventually find a way to treat it.”
During the 1990's, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for disease control were already calling obesity an epidemic. In 2002,
the CDC ranked obesity among the top ten health indicators, noting that obesity increases the risk for type 2 diabetes, hypertension,
dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, certain cancers, gallstones, osteoarthritis, and lowered life expectancy. As
of 2006, the CDC reported that the incidence of overweight and obesity among adults is almost 33%. Among children, the numbers
are also growing, with 18% of adolescents experiencing overweight and obesity.
During the same time, stress has been on the rise, along with an increase in sedentary habits and even poorer eating habits.
So, there’s reason to be concerned. With a virus now in the mix, we can seriously ask whether obesity is contagious.
Just last month, a study was released suggesting that when one person is obese, the odds that the friends of that person will become
obese increase by more than 50 percent. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that obesity is
"socially contagious," as it can spread among individuals in close social circles.
The new study offers more reason to suggest that obesity is contagious in the more conventional sense. Yet neither study suggests
why some people “catch” obesity and others don’t. Of course, since we all routinely already carry most infectious agents, we really
don’t catch a cold, for example, so much as our immune systems succumb to it.
Neither of the studies talk about the role of stress. So I’ll do that.
In an earlier column (January 16, 2007) I commented on a study reporting that stress is a primary factor in “catching” a cold. The
study was reported by Dr. Sheldon Cohen, professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and adjunct professor of pathology
and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Cohen has made a long term study of the health effects of stress.
In three studies, Cohen and his co-researchers gave participants questionnaires assessing psychological stress and then gave them
nasal drops containing respiratory viruses. In each of the studies, the research found that people reporting higher levels of stress before
exposure to the virus “were more likely to develop respiratory illness.” Specifically, the studies found increased susceptibility to ill-
ness from 7 different viruses, including 6 cold viruses and an influenza virus.
In the new study that links viruses to obesity, the virus tested was one that commonly causes respiratory and eye infections.
We know that stress suppresses the ability of the immune system. We know that people with lowered immune response are more
susceptible to the respiratory virus that causes colds. When the researchers who discovered the link between viruses and obesity won-
der whether some people are more vulnerable to developing the virus, they would do well to look at immune systems and the role that
stress plays.
So let’s review.
The U.S. Surgeon General said in 2001 the obesity results from eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity.
He also said body weight is a result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture, and socioeconomic status. Finally, he said
that behavior and environment are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment of obesity.
One of the behaviors we can control is our reaction to stress. Stress is a physiological response to negative emotion. When we ex-
perience chronic negative emotion, we overproduce cortisol, which suppresses the immune system, and glucose, which tends to add
weight around the belly.
Its time we begin to recognize that emotional management – learning the skill to stop chronic negative emotional states – is a major
factor in the incidence of disease, including the obesity disease.
We can’t avoid encountering viruses, but we can promote healthy immune systems that have the capacity to resist infection by the
virus.
Good diet and sensible exercise are critically important. The study on the virus/obesity connection reminds us that these two things
don’t work to prevent obesity, or many other health conditions, without the third and critically important behavioral factor, which is
good emotional management.
Emotional management is a skill. That’s what we teach at HeartWorks.

John Davidson operates the HeartWorks Stress Management Center in Raton, New Mexico. If you have questions for
him, you can contact John Davidson at www.heartworksnm.com. Copyright John P. Davidson 2007.