EC Nutrition

Editorial Volume 18 Issue 8 - 2023

Re-Setting the Gravitostat; An Environmental Theory of Obesity

Paul Clayton*

Visiting Professor, Department Preventative and Personal Medicine, Institute of Interdisciplinary Medicine, Moscow, Russia
*Corresponding Author: Paul Clayton, Visiting Professor, Department Preventative and Personal Medicine, Institute of Interdisciplinary Medicine, Moscow, Russia.
Received: August 16, 2023;; Published: August 22, 2023



Illustration

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/19487821/thomas-the-tank-engine-fat-controller/

1954 was my first year at school, a Presbyterian establishment which built large numbers of doctors, lawyers and civil servants. Of around 2000 boys, only one had a weight problem. His name was Thomas so naturally we called him the Fat Controller, from the Thomas the Tank Engine books. The rest of us had body shapes more like this:

Keywords: Gravitostat; Obesity; Environmental Contaminants; Lithium

  1. NCHS, National Health Examination Survey and National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2023).
  2. Swinburn BA., et al. “The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments”. Lancet9793 (2011): 804-814.
  3. Hales CM., et al. “Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2017-2018”. NCHS Data Briefs 360 (2020): 1-8.
  4. Ward ZJ., et al. “Projected U.S. State-Level Prevalence of Adult Obesity and Severe Obesity”. The New England Journal of Medicine25 (2019): 2440-2450.
  5. Tinbergen N and Perdeck AC. “On the Stimulus Situation Releasing the Begging Response in the Newly Hatched Herring Gull Chick (Larus Argentatus Argentatus Pont.)”. Behaviour1 (1950): 1-39.
  6. Mozaffarian D. “Perspective: Obesity-an unexplained epidemic”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition6 (2022): 1445-1450.
  7. Schiller JS., et al. “Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data from the January-September 2017 National Health Interview Survey”. NCHS (2017): 43.
  8. Pagoto SL and Appelhans BM. “A call for an end to the diet debates”. The Journal of the American Medical Association7 (2013): 687-688.
  9. Wilding JPH., et al. “Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: The STEP 1 trial extension”. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism8 (2022): 1553-1564.
  10. Klimentidis YC., et al. “Canaries in the coal mine: a cross-species analysis of the plurality of obesity epidemics”. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences1712 (2011): 1626-1632.
  11. Thatcher SD., et al. “Prevalence of obesity in mature horses: an equine body condition study”. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition2 (2008): 222.
  12. Lind L., et al. “Uppsala Consensus Statement on Environmental Contaminants and the Global Obesity Epidemic”. Environmental Health Perspectives5 (2016): A81-A83.
  13. https://drpaulclayton.eu/blog/falling-down/
  14. Leckie RL., et al. “BDNF mediates improvements in executive function following a 1-year exercise intervention”. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8 (2014): 985.
  15. Cheval B., et al. “Genetic insights into the causal relationship between physical activity and cognitive functioning”. Scientific Reports1 (2023): 5310.
  16. Gibbons TD., et al. “Fasting for 20 h does not affect exercise-induced increases in circulating BDNF in humans”. The Journal of Physiology (2023).
  17. Ciria LF., et al. “An umbrella review of randomized control trials on the effects of physical exercise on cognition”. Nature Human Behaviour6 (2023): 928-941.
  18. Cowley MA., et al. “Integration of NPY, AGRP, and melanocortin signals in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus: evidence of a cellular basis for the adipostat”. Neuron1 (1999): 155-163.
  19. Suh JM. “YAP/TAZ uncouples leptin expression from fat mass: revisiting the adipostat hypothesis”. Seoul National University, School of Biological Sciences (2022).
  20. Jansson JO., et al. “Body weight homeostat that regulates fat mass independently of leptin in rats and mice”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2 (2018): 427-432.
  21. Bake T., et al. “The gravitostat protects diet-induced obese rats against fat accumulation and weight gain”. Journal of Neuroendocrinology8 (2021): e12997.
  22. Ohlsson C., et al. “Increased weight loading reduces body weight and body fat in obese subjects - A proof of concept randomized clinical trial”. EClinical Medicine 22 (2020): 100338.
  23. Salans LB., et al. “Experimental obesity in man: cellular character of the adipose tissue”. Journal of Clinical Investigation5 (1971): 1005-1011.
  24. Sims EA and Horton ES. “Endocrine and metabolic adaptation to obesity and starvation”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition12 (1968): 1455-1470.
  25. Bray GA. “The pain of weight gain: self-experimentation with overfeeding”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition1 (2020): 17-20.
  26. My own personal experience (2023).
  27. https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/
  28. Vogel D and Dussutour A. “Direct transfer of learned behavior via cell fusion in non-neural organisms”. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283 (2016): 20162382.
  29. Torrent C., et al. “Weight gain in bipolar disorder: pharmacological treatment as a contributing factor”. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica1 (2008): 4-18.
  30. Alda M. “Lithium in the treatment of bipolar disorder: pharmacology and pharmacogenetics”. Molecular Psychiatry6 (2015): 661-670.
  31. Mauer S., et al. “Standard and trace-dose lithium: a systematic review of dementia prevention and other behavioral benefits”. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry9 (2014): 809-818.
  32. Schrauzer GN and De Vroey E. “Effects of nutritional lithium supplementation on mood. A placebo-controlled study with former drug users”. Biological Trace Element Research1 (1994): 89-101.
  33. https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/08/02/a-chemical-hunger-part-vii-lithium/
  34. Van Galen KA., et al. “Brain responses to nutrients are severely impaired and not reversed by weight loss in humans with obesity: a randomized crossover study”. Nature Metabolism (2023).
  35. Can A., et al. “Chronic lithium treatment rectifies maladaptive dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens”. Journal of Neurochemistry4 (2016): 576-585.
  36. Gomes-da-Costa S., et al. “Lithium therapy and weight change in people with bipolar disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis”. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Journal 134 (2022): 104266.
  37. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-history/7-was-originally-antidepressant#:~:text=The%20'lithiated'%20in%20the%20name,bipolar%20disorder%2C%20depression%20or%20mania
  38. Lindsey BD., et al. “Lithium in groundwater used for drinking-water supply in the United States”. Science of the Total Environment 767 (2021): 144691.
  39. http://whylome.org/lithium_removal_filter_study_Sep2022/Lithium_removal_with_household_water_purification_devices_Report.pdf
  40. Schrauzer GN. “Lithium: occurrence, dietary intakes, nutritional essentiality”. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 21 (2002): 14-21.
  41. Yagodin BA., et al. “Agrochemistry/Under edition”. B.A. Yagodin. M.: Kolos (2002): 584.
  42. Kavanagh L., et al. “Induced Plant Accumulation of Lithium”. Geosciences2 (2018): 56.
  43. Cannon HL., et al. “Lithium in Unconsolidated Sediments. and Plants of the Basin and Range Province, Southern California and Nevada. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER (2023): 918.
  44. Kabata-Pendias A and Mukherjee AB. “Trace elements from soil to human”. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (2007): 87-93.
  45. Kavanagh L., et al. “Induced Plant Accumulation of Lithium”. Geosciences2 (2018): 56.
  46. Schäfer U. “Lithium”. In: Merian E, Anke M, Ihnat M and Stoepler M, editors. Elements and their compounds in the environment. Weinheim: Wiley–VCH (2004): 901-930.
  47. Tölgyesi G. “Distribution of lithium in Hungarian soils and plants”. Lithium 4 (1983): 39-44.
  48. Yalamanchali RC. “Lithium, an emerging environmental contaminant, is mobile in the soil-plant system”. MSc Thesis, Lincoln University, NZ (2012).
  49. Jakobsson E., et al. “Towards a Unified Understanding of Lithium Action in Basic Biology and its Significance for Applied Biology”. The Journal of Membrane Biology6 (2017): 587-604.
  50. Maddala RNM., et al. “Chronic lithium intoxication: Varying electrocardiogram manifestations”. Indian Journal of Pharmacology1 (2017): 127-129.
  51. Karppanen H and Mervaala E. “Sodium intake and hypertension”. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases2 (2006): 59-75.
  52. Grillo A., et al. “Sodium Intake and Hypertension”. Nutrients9 (2019): 1970.
  53. Mervaala EM., et al. “Beneficial effects of a potassium- and magnesium-enriched salt alternative”. Hypertension6-1 (1992): 535-540.
  54. Karppanen H. “New oral salt in treatment of high blood pressure”. Magnesium5-6 (1989): 274-287.
  55. Laatikainen T., et al. “Blood Pressure, Sodium Intake, and Hypertension Control: Lessons from the North Karelia Project”. Global Heart2 (2016): 191-199.
  56. https://thewest.com.au/business/public-companies/lithium-australia-launches-new-battery-fertiliser-trial-c-2987603
  57. https://drpaulclayton.eu/blog/just-one-word-plastics-think-about-it/
  58. Hall KD., et al. “Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake”. Cell Metabolism1 (2019): 67-77.e3.
  59. Fazzino TL., et al. “Ad libitum meal energy intake is positively influenced by energy density, eating rate and hyper-palatable food across four dietary patterns”. Nature Food2 (2023): 144-147.
  60. Crimarco A., et al. “Ultra-processed Foods, Weight Gain, and Co-morbidity Risk”. Current Obesity Reports 11 (2022): 80-92.
  61. Mendonca RD., et al. “Ultraprocessed food consumption and risk of overweight and obesity: the University of Navarra Follow-Up (SUN) cohort study”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition5 (2016): 1433-1440.

Paul Clayton. “Re-Setting the Gravitostat; An Environmental Theory of Obesity” ”. EC Nutrition  18.8 (2023): 01-09.

ECronicon Journal

Our Services

Quick Links

Information

Creative Commons LicenseOpen Access by ECronicon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Based on a work at www.ecronicon.net