A stressful day at work and anxiety has you making a beeline to the refrigerator as soon as you get home. Sure, food is soothing, but is there something more to it? Obesity, as well as type 2 diabetes, have been linked to stress and now scientists are beginning to understand a little bit more about the reasons. Researchers at Israels Weizmann Institute of Science have found that a gene in the brain may be the missing link between stress, anxiety and metabolic changes that cause symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes.
According to a study on mice published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a protein produced in certain brain cells, especially in times of stress, is transported to other areas of the brain, among them the areas that oversee feelings of hunger and satiety as well as levels of anxiety. When the researchers altered the gene in order to increase the amount of the protein in the brains of the mice, their anxiety behavior increased and they began to show signs of the first stage of type 2 diabetes.
We showed that the actions of a single gene in just one part of the brain can have profound effects on the metabolism of the whole body, said Alon Chen, Ph.D., principle investigator in the Neurobiology of Stress Lab at Weizmann and leader of the study. Further research in this area may eventually lead to treatment or prevention of a number of stress-related diseases.
Source: Weizmann Institute of Science
