Why some obese people don't get a 'fight-or-flight' buzz after eating sugar
Blunted sympathetic neural response to oral glucose in obese subjects with the insulin-resistant metabolic syndrome.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When you eat sugar, your body usually turns on a stress system to help burn it off. But in some obese people with insulin resistance, this system doesn't turn on well.
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A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When you eat sugar, your body usually turns on a stress system to help burn it off. But in some obese people with insulin resistance, this system doesn't turn on well.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 546 / 44
Evidence Score
A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Publication
Authors
Straznicky NE, Lambert GW, Masuo K, Dawood T, Eikelis N, Nestel PJ, McGrane MT, Mariani JA, Socratous F, Chopra R, Esler MD, Schlaich MP, Lambert EA
Related Content
Claims (6)
When people with normal insulin sensitivity consume glucose, their sympathetic nervous system becomes more active; in people with insulin resistance, the same glucose intake does not produce this increase.
In obese adults with metabolic syndrome, higher insulin levels after eating are linked to lower activity in the part of the nervous system that prepares the body for stress or action.
In obese individuals with metabolic syndrome, those who also have insulin resistance show higher levels of nerve activity related to stress responses while at rest, compared to those without insulin resistance, even when other factors like age and blood pressure are similar.
In people with obesity and metabolic syndrome, the body's automatic nervous system response to sugar is weaker than expected, and this weakness is not due to how blood vessels in muscles or heart reflexes behave—it likely stems from how the brain controls automatic functions.
In people with obesity and metabolic syndrome, higher amounts of fat around the abdomen are linked to a weaker activation of the nervous system that helps regulate blood sugar after eating, suggesting this fat may interfere with normal metabolic control.