Abdominal Fat and Crohn’s

A recent study from Loyola University in Chicago found that abdominal fat may help people may help regulate the immune system. The study as usual was done in mice by professor Makio Iwashima .The stomach fat is known as omentum which is just a fatty tissue that hangs down from the intestine. For some reason when omentum is attached to damaged organs the tissue heals.

This study may have something to it. For nearly all my life I have been thin BMI (body mass index) even on the low end even for the normal amount. There was a time when I was young where I was a little chubby but as I grew older I thinned out after I started working out once I was 16. Prior to Crohn’s I was working out every day burning 500-600 calories on an elliptical. I don’t know exactly how excessive work out effects the immune system but I have noticed a lot of articles about athletes are diagnosed with Crohn’s.  What I notice is that Crohn’s patients tend to be on the thin side even before they are diagnosed with Crohn’s. I haven’t seen too many overweight people diagnosed with Crohn’s.

Hopefully the effects of omentum on humans can be studied in order to devise some new therapies with fewer side effects then existing drugs for Crohn’s. Gaining weight though in order to get more abdominal fat should not be a policy recommendation since this would raise someone’s chances of getting a heart attack, Type II diabetes, and cancer.