Scans - Obese Vs Slim

[jyl]

I ran across this image and thought it was very interesting. Scans of two women , one at 120 lb and one at 250 lb.



The 250 lb'er has a lot more subcutaneous fat, as expected. But her organs are way the hell bigger too. Is that visceral fat? Or do an obese person's organs enlarge?

[masraum]

I saw body works or body world or whatever it was called where they had the plasticized bodies on display. One was a slice of an obese guy with a pacemaker. I believe what I read was that when you first start to gain fat, it builds up around the outside of the body, but that as you get really fat, it starts to invade everything.

I would think that if you were heavily over-eating daily, that at least certain organs would have to enlarge. I would expect the stomach and intestines to enlarge, and probably the heart, and I assume the liver may enlarge a bit too. I wouldn't expect the lungs to enlarge at all.

[M.D. Holloway]

Looks like the twofidy pounder has a bowel full...

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

Looks like the twofidy pounder has a bowel full...

Full of it, we say around here.

[crustychief]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

Looks like the twofidy pounder has a bowel full...

And the lighter one has scoliosis.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I don't know about the other organs, but the STOMACH definitely gets bigger.

[livi]

Yes, lipids will deposit in many organs, not least in the bowel, around the intestines, in the liver etc.
Those scans are very pedagogic indeed.

[Joe Bob]

Didn't Elvis have like 80lbs of schizzle impacted in his colon?

[jyl]

The enlarged organs kind of freak me out. I'm convinced that I have a bunch of visceral fat, like that. Creepy!

[aap1966]

The "I have big bones" defence doesn't cut it..................

[aap1966]

Originally Posted by jyl

The enlarged organs kind of freak me out. I'm convinced that I have a bunch of visceral fat, like that. Creepy!

Visceral fat produces estrogen (yes, in guys too), which is why obese men can get 'man boobs" and even breast cancer.

That fact seems told get the attention of my obese male patients a whole lot more than the routine heart attack, blood pressure, diabetes, etc talk.

[jyl]

That scan (x ray ?) is interesting . Man on the left? How heavy, about? What about the woman on the right?

The "I have big bones" defence doesn't cut it..................

[recycled sixtie]

And the surgeons operating on these obese folks have a lot more searching and cutting to do to achieve their objective......

[tcar]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

And the surgeons operating on these obese folks have a lot more searching and cutting to do to achieve their objective......

That's only part of the problem...

Adipose tissue is extremely greasy and slippery... very difficult to get a grip on what the surgeon needs to get a grip on.