In people with obesity, consuming glucose leads to a larger increase in insulin than expected, while the nervous system's response in the muscles is weaker than normal. This mismatch may be linked to...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
When someone with excess body fat eats sugar, their body makes more insulin than normal, but their nerves don't respond as strongly to it. This means the usual signal to increase nerve activity doesn't happen properly, even though there's plenty of insulin around — a sign that the brain's ability...
Most probable mechanism
When sugar is consumed, the pancreas releases more insulin in people with higher body fat, but the nerves that control blood vessel tone and muscle activity don't respond as strongly as they should. This happens because the brain and nerve cells become less sensitive to insulin's signal, so even though there's plenty of insulin, the body doesn't turn up the sympathetic nervous system like it normally would.
Oral glucose ingestion increases blood glucose concentration, triggering pancreatic beta-cells to secrete insulin.
Elevated insulin levels normally activate neural circuits in the hypothalamus and brainstem that increase sympathetic outflow to skeletal muscle.
In individuals with elevated body fat, insulin signaling in central neural pathways is impaired, reducing the ability of insulin to stimulate sympathetic nerve activity.
The blunted sympathetic response occurs despite higher insulin concentrations, resulting in a dissociation between insulin elevation and sympathetic activation.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Community contributions welcome
Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Response to Glucose Ingestion: Impact of Plasma Insulin and Body Fat
Contradicting (0)
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