What is Hypothalamic Obesity

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of hypothalamic obesity, it is better to know what hypothalamus is. It is a small region or part of the brain that is situated just above the brainstem and just below the thalamus. The hypothalamus part of the brain controls such activities like hunger, body temperature, thirst, fatigue, sleep etc., It is nothing but the body’s biological clock that controls everything.

So in effect it is the hypothalamus region that gives signal to eat when we are hungry. When this region gets injured or because some form of brain tumor occurs that affects this region, then the hypothalamus gets affected and this result in a condition called Hypothalamus Obesity.

In this medical condition, the communication between the gut and the brain is impaired and hence no signal is received that adequate food has been consumed. The person afflicted with this condition never feels full and hence continuously eats voraciously. Such uncontrolled eating habit can trigger the body to store fat.

A report says that the individual can gain up to 900 grams in one single week. The individual starts to store fat in many areas of his / her body and this can result in morbid obese conditions also if not cared for. Individuals with Hypothalamic Obesity though may follow a proper workout regimen, they still would continue to store fat no matter how hard they sweat it out. Hence it is imperative to find out what the root cause of obesity is, before a treatment can be prescribed.