Quality and quantity may not seem to go together. If you want quantities, you may need to compromise on the quality. Again, paying greater attention to quality may require you to forget about the numbers. But the world, more specifically this brutal professional world demands both. And you may only find quality and quantity to appear hand in hand in the worst cases - in obesity.
Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have suggested that the quantity as well as the quality of adipose tissue may contribute towards the development of cardiovascular diseases in obese people.
Researchers have claimed that the fat tissue itself bears the clues to treat cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and other obesity associated diseases like cancer. Researchers began by studying the adipose tissue samples of lean as well as obese individuals. The subjects were in the midst of treatment at the BMC and consisted of 109 obese men and 17 thin men and women in the age group of 21 to 55.
The tissue was then made to undergo biopsy and the amount of inflammation was assessed. Blood vessel function was then evaluated with the help of a vascular ultrasound conducted on the forearm artery. The findings indicated that adipose inflammation was not found to be associated with the lean subjects, who experienced normal vascular function whereas their obese counterparts showed evidences of poor vascular function and considerable inflammation.
It was also observed that 30 percent of the obese individuals witnessed decreased fat inflammation and lesser degree of resistance to insulin. They had a vascular function similar to that of the lean subjects. This finding establishes that individuals who are susceptible to inflammation alongside weight gain are at a greater risk of contracting cardiovascular and metabolic disorders.
With reference to the findings, researchers claimed that not every obese individual is expected to develop inflammation and to invite type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart diseases. They now intend to find out the harmful substances which the adipose tissue produces to induce systemic inflammation. They hope that this way, they can design a treatment to combat the devastating obesity related issues.
