The Role of the sympathetic nervous system and catecholamines in the regulation of energy metabolism
1983
Landsberg, Lewis | Young, James B.
The relationship between dietary intake, sympathetic nervous system activity, and dietary thermogenesis is reviewed. Depression of sympathetic nervous system activity by fasting or caloric restriction has been demonstrated in both rats and humans. Sucrose and glucose stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. Experimental evidence suggests that the availability of glucose is somehow involved in the relationship between fasting and carbohydrate intake. Since circulating insulin reflects the level of carbohydrate intake, it is logical that it serves as the link between dietary intake and sympathetic nerve activity. Fat also has a marked stimulatory effect in both man and animals on sympathetic activity. Diet-induced changes in sympathetic activity are also suggested by the classic animal experiments in the regulation of thermogenesis in response to cold exposure and the role of the brown fat cells. The evidence in human subjects is not as clear-cut but sympathetic nervous suppression may well contribute to the metabolic adaption to caloric restriction by decreasing energy output. Diet-induced changes in sympathetic activity have important implications for therapeutic dieting and the development of obesity in some individuals. They may explain, at least in part, the hypotensive effect of fasting in hypertensive rats and during caloric restriction in obese human subjects. (emc)
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