Ten years ago the idea of chemically induced obesity was something of a fringe hypothesis, but not anymore.
“Obesogens are certainly a contributing factor to the obesity epidemic,” is what Bruce Blumberg, an expert on obesity and endocrine-disrupting chemicals from the University of California, Irvine, told me by email.
Importantly, recent research demonstrates that obesogens act to harm individuals in ways that traditional tests of chemical toxicity can’t detect. In particular, consequences of chemical exposure may not appear during the lifetime of an exposed organism but can be passed down through so-called epigenetic mechanisms to offspring even several generations away. A typical example is tributyltin or TBT, a chemical used in wood preservatives, among other things. In experiments exposing mice to low and supposedly safe levels of TBT, Blumberg and his colleagues found significantly increased fat accumulation in the next three generations.
Studies have found that the obesity crisis is also affecting cats, dogs and other animals living in proximity with people. A significant rise in obesity incidence has even been noted in laboratory rodents and primates – animals raised under strictly controlled conditions of caloric intake and exercise. The only possible factors driving weight gain for these animals, researchers believe, would be subtle chemical changes in the nature of the foods they eat, or in the materials used to build their pens.
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There are many different proposed mechanisms through which obesogens can interfere with the body's adipose tissue biology. These mechanisms include alterations in the action of metabolic sensors; dysregulation of sex steroid synthesis, action or breakdown; changes in the central integration of energy balance including the regulation of appetite and satiety; and reprogramming of metabolic setpoints.[6][7]
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Shanna Helen Swan is an American environmental and reproductive epidemiologist who is Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she has taught since April 2011.[1] She is known for her research on environmental contributions to sperm count and the male infertility crisis, and a paper she co-authored on the subject in 2017[2] received significant attention in both the popular media and scholarly literature, becoming the world's 26th most referenced scientific paper published that year. She has also researched the effects of environmental chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs on the development of the human reproductive tract.[3][4] In 2021, with journalist Stacey Colino, Swan co-authored the book Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, Threatening Sperm Counts, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race, which discusses declining sperm counts in men and attributes this decline to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.[5]
Since 1980, obesity prevalence among US adults has soared from 14% to 42%. The commonly accepted explanation is pervasive overeating: ever-increasing energy intake as the population gains weight, year after year. However, evidence does not support this hypothesis.
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const obesityCrisis = true;
const chemicalExposure = true;
const checkObesityHypothesis = (obesityCrisis, chemicalExposure) => {
if (obesityCrisis && chemicalExposure) {
console.log('Chemically induced obesity is a real concern!');
console.log('Obesogens may contribute to the obesity epidemic, and their effects may be passed down through generations.');
console.log('Even animals living in controlled environments are experiencing weight gain, which may be attributed to subtle chemical changes in their environment.');
} else {
console.log('The hypothesis of chemically induced obesity remains controversial.');
}
};
checkObesityHypothesis(obesityCrisis, chemicalExposure);
// Prints information about the potential link between chemicals and obesity.
Chemically induced obesity is a real concern!
Obesogens may contribute to the obesity epidemic, and their effects may be passed down through generations.
Even animals living in controlled environments are experiencing weight gain, which may be attributed to subtle chemical changes in their environment.