Research
Hormonal
Obesity acts as a chronic stressful state that can cause HPA axis dysfunction, creating a bidirectional relationship with stress.
Obesity is not just a storage issue; it creates a biological stress state that disrupts hormonal balance. Breaking this cycle requires addressing both the metabolic load and the stress response.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Stress, primarily through hyperactivation of the HPA axis, appears to contribute to the accumulation of fat tissue, and vice versa, obesity itself seems to constitute a chronic stressful state and may cause HPA axis dysfunction.
Why this rating
Review paper describing correlations and mechanisms.
Source
Stress, Visceral Obesity, and Metabolic Complications
Ioannis Kyrou et al. · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2006
DOI 10.1196/annals.1367.008
narrative_reviewCited 379×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Chronic stress contributes to the accumulation of visceral fat tissue primarily through the hyperactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and subsequent glucocorticoid exposure.Moderate
- Visceral obesity potentiates local glucocorticoid action through the enzyme 11β-HSD1, which converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol, thereby increasing tissue sensitivity to glucocorticoids.Moderate
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