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Obesity linked to autonomic nervous system

JAIPUR: A new research study on obesity among adolescents has underlined the need to regulate the youngsters’ autonomic nervous system to strike a balance between energy expenditure and body fat content, which may hold the key to prevention of fatness among children as they grow up.

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the part of neurological structure of human beings that controls the processes which are unconscious, such as heartbeat, breathing and blood circulation.

The study, “Heart rate variability and obesity in adolescents”, was conducted jointly by Dr. Ashok Gupta and Dr. Anil Kumar of the Paediatrics Department of Sawai Man Singh Medical College here to find out the reasons behind abrupt gain of weight by some teenagers without any discernible cause.

Dr. Gupta – who is also president of the International Society of Tropical Paediatrics – said the study had concluded that ANS as a whole was depressed in the obese group of adolescents and there was a particular evidence of “parasympathetic depression”.

There is a potential etiological association between childhood obesity and alternation in the ANS activity, says the study in its findings published here.

Consequently, modulation of autonomic tone can in effect alter the obesity status of adolescents which can save them from long-term effects of fatness.

The study, which randomly selected 25 obese and 25 normal children studying in three schools here on the basis of their body mass index (BMI) for its sample experiments, advocated physical exercise as “the most important method” for maintaining autonomic tone, which in turn would reduce fat deposits in the body.

Dr. Gupta pointed out that heart rate variability was a quantitative marker of ANS activity and its decrease was treated as a risk factor involving a wide spectrum of disorders.

“Hence the impact of heart rate variability on the BMI is of utmost importance and can depict the degree of risk involved.”

The study revealed that high frequency of heartbeat was much lower in the obese group of adolescents, implying that parasympathetic component of ANS was significantly reduced in obesity.

Dr. Gupta said obesity was prevalent among 7.5 to 10 per cent of adolescents across the country, the result mainly of a lifestyle of high fat diet and low physical activity among the teenagers.

He added that the study’s findings, if implemented, would help adolescents grow as healthy, responsible and productive adults.

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