Let’s say someone ate poorly (high fat, junk food diet) and exercised very little for 5-10 years in early adulthood. But maintained a fairly balanced lifestyle and healthy weight afterwards. Would the body “recover” from the negative effects of being overweight or does the lifestyle change simply pause the negative effects from increasing?
In: Biology
Not a doctor, but the answer is certainly a bit of both. Buildup of fat tissue in the body from eating high-calorie foods can be easily reversed; it’s just the body’s way of storing energy for later. Buildup of sodium in the body can be reversed as well, since sodium routinely exits the body through urine. However, some of the conditions that arise from long periods of unhealthy lifestyle can cause irreversible damage, such as diabetes, hypertension, malnutrition, etc. Explaining why each particular condition is reversible or not is very complicated, and different for every case, but typically it’s a function of how quickly the body is able to get rid of certain substances, and whether they act by changing an environment or just straight up destroying it.
You can think of it like alcohol. You drink every once in a while, you’ll be fine. Even if you’re an alcoholic, you can recover with minimal side effects if you do so within a couple years but it will be difficult to do so. However, as soon as you start to develop liver cirrhosis, that damage is never going to heal even if you stop drinking.
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