Why do we need adipose tissue? What functions does it fulfill? |

The story of a woman who had no fat in her body

Meet Christina, a healthy and vital twelve-year-old from Vineland, NJ in the last decade of the twentieth century. Her life was quite ordinary until she matured and then something strange happened. Her body began to lose fat. Many teenagers would be pleased with this fact, because generally young girls find themselves too fat. However, Christina’s case was disturbing as subcutaneous fat was disappearing from her cheeks, hands and other parts of the body. Clothes began to hang on her and she looked like dried raisins.

Additionally, this phenomenon was accompanied by a huge surge of appetite. The girl, whatever she ate, did not feel full and was extremely hungry all the time. She ate large portions until she was full and hardly vomited, but still lost weight and fat. Additionally, another strange symptom appeared – subcutaneous lumps began to grow on the girl’s body.

When Christina’s parents took Christina for testing, the results were shocking. Her total cholesterol concentration was 950 mg / dl, while the norm for girls at her age was less than 170. Her triglyceride concentration, which should be around 150, was 16 mg / dl. Her physiological concentration of fasting glucose was terribly high compared to the norm and amounted to 000! Her blood was saturated with fat, cholesterol and sugar.

Christina Vena suffered from a genetic disease – lipodystrofięwhich consists in the complete death of adipose tissue. Since Christina did not have it, there was not enough room to store excess nutrients that she absorbed with food. They circulated endlessly in her blood. They also began to accumulate in the liver, which grew larger and in the form of painful lumps under the skin.

The doctors managed to restore her body to a relative balance in the concentration of glucose and triglycerides in her blood, and helped her lower her appetite so that Christina could live a normal life. First, she was treated with plasmapheresis, a procedure in which blood plasma was passed through a filter that separates fats and cholesterol. Christina was then cured with the administration of leptin – discovered in 1994, which is the satiety hormone produced naturally by our adipose tissue. Thanks to it, the girl stopped overeating and the concentration of glucose and triglycerides in her blood significantly decreased. The liver regained its normal size and the lumps under the skin disappeared. Christina went to college, then to work, got married and leads a fulfilling life. Before the discovery of leptin, doctors predicted that the teenager would die.

Her story and that of other people suffering from lipodystrophy show how important the role of adipose tissue in our body is in maintaining good health. Without fat, other organs could not function properly. Living without a gram of body fat would require us to be in constant control of balancing energy absorption and expenditure, which is unrealistic. It is thanks to fat and the stores it contains that we can draw energy when needed and not constantly think about food.

Different theories about body fat over the centuries

Imagine that in the past people considered the fat in our body to be idle and unnecessary fat. For centuries, fat has been a storehouse of excess calories for humans, and nothing more. Ancient Greek doctors believed that fat was the product of clotted blood that accumulated in “cold” parts of a woman’s body. Another hypothesis was that excess body fluid, such as unused milk after feeding infants, or unused male semen, is converted into fat.

The invention of the microscope in the second half of the XNUMXth century deepened the human view of fat. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek created a lens that magnifies the observed object more than two hundred times. The body fat was then examined under a microscope, and it was discovered that it was made up of many “vesicles” that scientists called cells.

In the XNUMXth century, Theodore Gobley explained the molecular structure of a fat molecule and showed that it is essentially a very long chain of carbon atoms. During this time, various types of fatty compounds, which were given a common name – lipids, were detected.

In the XNUMXth century, scientists finally discovered that the fatty tissue in our body is not all fat. The soft fat blanket that envelops our bodies turned out to be, on average, only three-quarters of the fat. The rest are the collagen fibers, blood vessels and nerves that support it, as well as blood, muscle, stem, and immune cells. Also, the fold on your belly is not pure fat 😉

Fun facts about fat

• Adipocyty are fat cells that can increase in volume over a thousand times. They appear in prenatal life and the fetus begins to produce them in the womb at fourteen weeks of age, before all the body’s systems have taken up vital functions.
• We are born with 13% body fat, and after a year its amount increases to 28% body composition.
• In an adult human, the number of adipocytes is approximately 25-30 billion.
• Adipocytes can grow in two ways: through hyperplasia – increasing the number of cells, or through hypertrophy – that is, increasing their size.
• At the age of 10 – 18, the final number of fat cells in the human body is formed. If a child is improperly fed and becomes obese, they may have many more fat cells than their lean peers.
• In an adult human, weight gain is not associated with an increase in the number of adipocytes, but with the expansion of their size. So the number of fat cells may be normal, but when they start to “swell” and grow, we fall into the trap of overweight or obesity.
• Lizzie Velasquez has been proclaimed the “Ugliest Woman in the World”. This title was awarded to her only because she was born without body fat.
• The man with the smallest amount of fat in the world is Helmut Strebl, of Austrian origin. He is 190 cm tall, weighs 91 kilograms, and his body fat is estimated at 2 – 4%.
• After liposuction, the fat may grow back, not necessarily in the same place from which it was sucked off.
• It is assumed that in women the norm of body fat content is from 23 to 34% – says Hanna Stolińska-Fiedorowicz, a nutritionist from the Institute of Food and Nutrition. In healthy men, fat can make up 8 to 21% of body weight.

We have several types of body fat in our body

White – WAT– white adipose tissue. It is our store of energy that we can reach for in times of hunger and food shortage. This is how evolution has secured man against the difficult times of food shortage.

Brown or brown – BAT – brown adipose tissue. Its color comes from the large collection of blood vessels and mitochondria that are responsible for energy production. The main function of brown adipose tissue is to maintain body temperature.

Pink – PAT – pink adipose tissue. It is formed only in pregnant women and during breastfeeding.

Beige – ang. Beige adipose tissue. Discovered quite recently. It turns out that under the influence of certain stimuli (cold, strength training) white adipose tissue can turn brown, becoming beige.

Our body has many ways to produce fat, and even more ways to stop our efforts to get rid of it. While excessive obesity can lead to many serious diseases, the extra few kilos of excess weight in the form of fat are not as bad for your health as we think. The right amount of fat is healthy and we need it to function optimally!

Here are 7 surprising benefits of having body fat

1. Fat helps protect internal organs from injury by acting like a physical pillow. It is also a good shock absorber for bones. Visceral fat surrounds the kidneys, liver, intestines and other tissues and internal organs, protecting them against mechanical damage. It maintains their stability, i.e. prevents excessive movement, thanks to which they are in their place.

2. Subcutaneous fat maintains body temperature. Think of your fat as an insulating layer to keep you warm. Adipocytes do not conduct heat as easily as other types of cells. This is used by many marine mammals to create a layer of fat that allows animals to stay warm in cold water. In humans, brown fat regulates body temperature, and if you are constantly cold, you may not have enough of it.

3. Adipose tissue is the main energy store. Your body almost always uses energy from multiple sources (blood glucose, liver or muscle glycogen stores), but in endurance sports your body uses more energy from fat so you can move without constantly refueling. 40 calories stored in fat weighs only 4,5 kg. If we were to store the same amount of energy in the form of glycogen or glucose mixed with water, we would have to weigh more than twice as much as we weigh!

4. Adipose tissue is important for hormonal regulation. The hormones secreted by adipose tissue include: leptyna (the ‘satiety’ hormone which suppresses the feeling of hunger), adiponektyna (makes the body more sensitive to insulin, plays a protective role in the development of diabetes), Tumor necrosis factor alpha – TNFa from tumor necrosic factor (pro-inflammatory, may contribute to insulin resistance), angiotensynogen (precursor to the hormone that regulates blood pressure), just to name a few. Currently, over 600 different ones are described in the scientific literature active compounds secreted by adipose tissue, which are involved in the maintenance of many body processes.

Adipose tissue also plays a role in the regulation of fertility hormones, which is one reason why eating disorders can lead to fertility problems. During the menopause, adipose tissue takes over the production of estrogen, which is why women can gain a lot of weight during this time.

5. Wrinkles are a natural part of the aging process, but they’re not welcome these days. Fat tissue can protect against skin aging by providing a fuller structure to the skin. Maybe you have an elderly family member with a round face, unblemished by wrinkles, so you know the anti-aging effect of fat.

6. Adipose tissue plays an important role in the functioning of the immune system. Scientists have observed that in people with very little body fat, the immune system is often weakened. In patients with anorexia and extreme fat deficiency, studies have shown reduced immunity. Similarly, in developing countries, where there is sometimes malnutrition, it favors the spread of infectious diseases, because too little fat in the body impairs immunity. Scientists have found that many immune cells have receptors for leptin, which is produced by adipose tissue. Leptin modulates the cells of the immune system.

7. Fat stores toxins and keeps them away from the more important organs of the body. In today’s world, each of us is exposed to a huge amount of poisons contained in water, food, inhaled air and cosmetics. If your body is overloaded with them and is unable to process them immediately (insufficient and overloaded liver), your body stores them in fat cells. When losing weight, when we are reducing body fat, it is worth taking particular care of your liver, because with the loss of kilograms, we also get rid of toxins accumulated in fat, which can additionally burden the body.

What do you think about your fat now?

The disliked and not very popular fat in our bodies also has good sides. Remember that life without fat would not be easy, as the story of Christina Vena suffering from lipodystrophy has proven. You may not be familiar with the abovementioned benefits of adipose tissue, but you still look unfavorably at your folds, sides, shifting thighs, and waving arms. Just as excess fat can sometimes cause health problems, its deficiency is not beneficial for our body.

Many young girls and women strive to be unrealistically thin, which can lead to health problems and even eating disorders. Remember that fat is not as scary as slimming specialists try to convince you. Perhaps we ourselves demonize the fat in our body at times, we don’t like our plump shapes and we want to be slim at all costs. Is it possible to have more body fat than the norm and still be satisfied with your figure? Is the person healthy then?

The obesity paradox – when fat can extend life

Dr. Carl Lavie of the New Orleans cardiology clinic discovered a remarkable thing. He noted in one of his studies that people with higher BMI and more body fat live longer after a cardiovascular event. This research result has challenged the belief that fat reduction is beneficial for patients with heart failure. Doctor Lavie analyzed a huge number of cases of heart disease and was amazed to see a correlation between higher body weight and a better prognosis of survival with heart failure.

The excited doctor and his colleagues wrote a scientific article about this phenomenon and submitted it for publication. It turned out, however, that all important medical letters had refused. One reviewer unscrupulously stated that he had never read anything so stupid and ridiculous. The medical community was unable to accept that fat could play a positive role in patients with a history of cardiac disease.

After some time, however, it turned out that other doctors also began to notice this unusual relationship between body fat and the chance of living longer in people with heart problems. Dr. Jill Pell from the University of Glasgow, analyzing the convalescence of approximately 5 British cardiac patients after angioplasty (clearing the coronary artery with a catheter with a balloon at the end) found that in the overweight group, the percentage of five-year survival was higher than in patients with normal or normal too low body weight.

Scientists and doctors call this the obesity paradox. So far, excess body fat has been blamed for heart attacks, strokes and a whole host of other serious diseases, and it turns out that sometimes being overweight can protect us from dying from the same disease that fat is commonly believed to cause. Some experts have found it difficult to accept Dr. Lavie’s discoveries because they contradicted everything believed to date.

But why is fat beneficial in disease? It is still unknown and new theories are emerging. One of them says that the body affected by the disease has an increased energy demand, and the fat would support vital functions both during the disease and during convalescence. Another theory is that fat is not equal to fat, and while visceral fat can generate adverse inflammatory responses and lead to diabetes and other metabolic diseases, subcutaneous fat is a good source of energy in the event of illness.

It also turns out that active people have a better prognosis after a heart attack, even if they are overweight. Exercise is beneficial in reducing pro-inflammatory visceral fat and redirects it to the peripheral tissues where fat is no longer as hazardous to health as the abdominal fat. Doctors concluded that sometimes it is better to be fat and physically active than skinny.

Summation

It’s fun to be slim, slim, beautiful and fit. Fat sometimes gets out of our control and it’s hard to control. Our task is to take care of the appropriate level of fat in your body so that you feel good about yourself. However, it is not worth striving for extreme thinness at all costs. Any deviation from the norm may cause some problems. This article is not promoting obesity, but it tries to look more graciously at the bacon we don’t like 😉 I hope you will come to an understanding with your fat tissue and appreciate its presence a little more, and if you think you have too much of it, melt it, act, fight!