Study: Severe obesity is accompanied by inflammation of the small intestine

The obesity problem in America is quickly becoming an epidemic. Previously it was estimated that one-third of Americans were obese. New research published in JAMA Internal Medicine uncovered this number has grown to nearly two thirds of Americans – 75 percent of men and 65 percent of women whereas 20 years ago it was 63 percent of men and 55 percent of women. The numbers are surely growing.

Obesity has been linked to many health conditions like gout, high blood pressure and heart disease. But along with obesity comes another health problem which is intestinal inflammation.

Obesity and inflammationr
Inflammation can occur when there is a threat in the body and it attempts to health itself. Although it can be caused by an infection, inflammation isn’t necessarily always bad. But in regards to obesity inflammation is quite harmful.

When a person has an influx of white blood cells it signals a higher risk of illness. In one study from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center they compared white blood cell counts between obese men and not obese men. What they found was among the obese men they had elevated levels of white blood cells. This can put them at higher risk for obesity-related illnesses.