How can diseases cause obesity?

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I just watched an episode of House and he diagnosed a girl with Cushing’s – an illness that can cause obesity.

How is that possible? I was under the impression that our bodies use energy we get from food, and if it doesn’t get the food it’ll burn fat resulting in us getting slimmer – how can a disease change that?

How does it not go against some laws of thermodynamics? Maybe I’m just being silly.

In: Biology

27 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I almost died from complications of cancer of my immune system in June of 2020 (what timing, I know!), and the medication that saved my life was Prednisone at 60mg/day. That’s a fairly heavy dose of steroids, and I had to stay on it for the next 4-5 months or I’d start going downhill again.

I can honestly tell you, I have never been so fucking hungry in my entire life. It was incredible. Just absolutely ravenous. I’d eat a full, large meal, only to be ready for another one. I think I gained like 30lbs over that time.

Hormones and medications like steroids are probably the biggest contributors to diseases causing obesity.

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