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Immune system plays major role in regulation of body weight

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  • BoxerBrawler
    BoxerBrawler Posts: 2,032 Member
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    My mother was always thin. She was diagnosed with Lupus long before anyone had even heard of the disease. They gave her five years to live and got her on massive doses of various meds including prednisone - notorious for causing weight gain. She struggled for a few years to learn about the disease and get it under control and she gained about 50 LBs or so from the meds. Once she was able to manager her disease she went on Weight Watchers (this was back in the 60's / 70's), and successfully lost not only the 50 LBs but several LBs more. Her doctors were astonished because there aren't many people who can successfully lose weight while on that particular med. But she lost the weight simply by calories in / calories out. Aside from a slow walk a few times a week she didn't exercise at all as her disease prevented her from doing so. Every time she tried to walk too much her symptoms would flare up and she'd be sick for days. So with a full blown auto-immune disease and on high doses of prednisone she was able to lose a bunch of weight and maintain her low weight for years and years without much exercise at all. Years ago I had developed arthritis in my hands. I was tested for Lupus a few times and the tests always came back borderline. I don't suffer any of the symptoms of the disease. When I decided to lose weight having an auto immune issue wasn't a factor - in my mind, losing unwanted weight would cure the disease... and it pretty much did after dropping 80 LBs. I maintain my weight with CICO and exercise and often times have a hard time keeping the weight on. I remember having a conversation with my doctor a few years back and he noted that a small percentage of people with auto immune disease tend to lose weight rather than gain in. I don't remember the specifics but I guess there are some, including myself, that fall into that bucket. I think a lot more research needs to be done on the topic.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    I have mixed feelings about the article and the headline.

    I definitely agree that this could lead to the next weight loss excuse for the general public. It may be the next "slow metabolism" and if so we will start seeing all sorts of "immune boosting" supplements, because you know if someone can make money off of it they will promote it and do so. I would be a little happier with the title if they had specified for "people with autoimmune disorders" or something similar. For those without an autoimmune disorder there may be a slight effect, but its probably pretty negligent compared to CICO. I don't have a good study to prove it, just my general observations of the people around me, but I still attest a majority of lack of weight loss to people not trying as hard as they claim, or just being generally misguided with it comes to nutrition and what is "healthy" vs "not".

    I would not discount that the immune system probably does play a much larger role in weight loss for people with immune system disorders, but I am not well versed in immune disorders so I can't argue in depth about specifics without alot more research on the subject. The "case" they present really does not discuss medical treatments at all, which as many of posters who have autoimmune diseases already said, have a huge impact on gain/loss in addition to the disorder itself. So it definitely does not really hold water with me without much more detail, but as you already mentioned this was intended to be the cliff notes version.

    IMO the research is probably great info for professionals who treat immune disorders to have, and share with patients, but is probably of relatively little value to the general public, whom will probably abuse it anyways. I imagine the author probably realizes all these points, but wants to get more readers so doesn't specify whom the information is more applicable to.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
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    jenilla1 wrote: »
    Treece68 wrote: »
    From my personal experience being overweight my whole life, and recently being diagnosed with Celiac, and trying lots and lots of diets and programs. I always gave up because I would only go down by 5lbs at the most. I am having more success now that I am gluten free and my immune system is working and my white blood cell count is normal. I don't know if it is true for all auto immune disorders.

    I guess it's different for everyone, even within the same immune disorder. Before I was diagnosed and went gluten free, I was borderline underweight, since I couldn't eat without becoming physically ill. I was able to stop the unintentional weight loss and bump it back up to a healthier place once my system got healthy. I think immune disorders mess with everyone in different ways. Glad you got diagnosed and got your health back in order! It's like night and day for me. :)

    I completely agree! I have a number of family members diagnosed with celiac disease (including myself) and the symptoms and weight fluctuations vary considerably from person to person. I think the immune system does play a role in how a person gains or loses weight, but I'm not sure there's going to be a general rule of thumb that applies to the majority of people.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    it looks like they took mice who were deficient in iNKT cells and gave them something to bind to receptor GLP-1 and found that this boosted production of iNKT cells which in turn increased production of FGF-21 which boosted metabolism and conversion of white fat into brown fat...voila, weight loss

    for humans who are deficient in iNKT cells, this is probably a great answer, but it seems unlikely to me that iNKT cell deficiency is the only cause of obesity in the human population...plus, it doesn't even try to address WHY there is a deficiency in the first place, if this is a symptom of some other underlying issue, would fixing the underlying issue boost iNKT cell production anyway, assuming you could identify the root cause of the deficiency?

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