Climate change will make us gain weight, according to the latest ‘Ask the Experts’ column in Scientific American.
In the most recent edition of the scientific journal, John Castellani, a researcher in the Thermal & Mountain Medicine Division of the U.S. Army’s Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, answers the following question: ‘To what degree is a person’s body weight affected by the ambient temperature and humidity? Do we conserve or release water as the climate changes?’
“Body weight changes usually result from long-term changes in lean or fat body mass, but they can also result from acute changes in total body water,” says Castellani in the article. “Significant changes in body weight due to climate usually take the form of weight gained rather than weight lost, especially once the body has become acclimated to high levels of activity in the heat.”
In the summer, we can gain several pounds due to increased body water – the result of fluid-conserving hormones that allow the kidneys to retain more fluid and reduce salt in sweat.
As the climate changes and temperatures increase over the long-term, our bodies will adapt through something scientists call ‘heat acclimatisation’ – a process that leads to more intense sweating and a reduction in body heat storage. As we sweat more, we drink more, thus increasing total body water and, according to the ‘experts’, leading to weight gain.
If that’s not a good enough reason to start cutting back on your CO2 emissions, what is?
Click here to find out how
That’s really interesting. What you eat (as in meat) can cause global warming too!
Comment by Neel — June 12, 2007 @ 3:33 pm
And so we have another reason for america to stop using their oil. xD
Comment by Meatball — June 17, 2007 @ 1:03 am
Haha, we even get fat from global warming! Things are not what they seems xD Yet another reason to go green!
Comment by Dude — June 17, 2007 @ 1:15 am
so drinking more beer than ever increase your weight… ahaa my future is good
Comment by vikram — June 17, 2007 @ 5:53 pm
More you have Non Veg and more you drink constantly, warming will increase for sure.
Comment by Amit — June 18, 2007 @ 7:36 am
Hello there, we are trying to get hols of stephen.crook@global-cool.com; or trisha reid. All the phone numbers do not work. Even your site contats page is not working? 415.606.6016 cheers
Comment by Dot Findlater — June 18, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
this man is only that fat koz he ate to many pies! this has nothing to do with global warming! xx
Comment by FREDDY mcBOB-BOB — June 19, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
yeh n wen u eat meat it causes global warmin coz u fart innit bruv! yeah mate xx
Comment by FREDDY mcBOB-BOB — June 19, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
I think I might have just had an aneurysm reading that. Let me preface this by saying I am a HUGE advocate of global awareness and action on minimizing human impact on the Earth because we do NOT know the long term impact as much as we like to run with hypotheses. That being said this article was terribly misleading and inaccurate. Your body’s homeostasis is governed by the hypothalamus in your brain. When there is an ambient increase in temperature, it reacts by decreasing drive for food intake which decreases metabolic activity leading to a decrease in heat production. So you EAT LESS. There is no “acclimatisation” to the degree this article implies. Your body has a set temperature limit of optimal functionality, so yes you will sweat more to increase heat loss. You WILL drink more to satisfy the need to sweat more, but you will NOT accumulate permanent water weight. That is just foolish. That water will just pass through your system faster because it is being perspired faster. Oh yeah and “water weight” BIG DEAL?!?! How shallow are you? Stop misleading the public. What you are doing is throwing out science in line with alchemy with the strong potential to detract from the popularity and focus on global change. In the meantime, until this article is revised or removed I will cut down one tree everyday to hear it scream, drive my car with the AC on and the windows down, and cut my lawn during the hours of 12 to 5 pm. Thank you and good day.
Comment by Adam — June 21, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
Adam, you are probably right but why not see it as one of 2 essential needs.
1) Global warming is good for no one on Earth.
2) Obesity causes lethal ill health conditions to countless numbers of people each year and costs our health services resources they could better use elsewhere. And flying these people adds to the CO2 produced because they cost more fuel and may need more than 1 seat!
Comment by GDance — June 21, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
most ridiculous thing of heard for awhile. by the way…good post adam.
Comment by suzy — June 22, 2007 @ 6:22 am