Mitochondria Hypothesis on the Obesity-Prone Tendency in Tae-Eum People

태음인의 비만경향에 대한 미토콘드리아 가설

  • Shim, Eun-Bo (Department of Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering, Kangwon National University) ;
  • Lee, Si-Woo (Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine) ;
  • Kim, Sung-Joon (Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University) ;
  • Leem, Chae-Hun (Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Ulsan) ;
  • Kwon, Young-Kyu (School of Oriental Medicine, Pusan National University) ;
  • Baik, You-Sang (Department of Oriental Medicine Classics, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyunghee University) ;
  • Kim, Jong-Yeol (Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine) ;
  • Earm, Yung-E. (Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University)
  • 심은보 (강원대학교 기계.의용공학과) ;
  • 이시우 (한국한의학연구원) ;
  • 김성준 (서울대학교 의과대학 생리학교실) ;
  • 임채헌 (울산대학교 의과대학 생리학교실) ;
  • 권영규 (부산대학교 한의학전문대학원) ;
  • 백유상 (경희대학교 한의과대학) ;
  • 김종열 (한국한의학연구원) ;
  • 엄융의 (서울대학교 의과대학 생리학교실)
  • Published : 2009.12.25

Abstract

It has been suggested that Tae-Eum peoples are prone to obesity. Although extensive clinical observations have shown this tendency in Sasang Constitutional Medicine (SCM), no scientific hypothesis has been proposed to delineate its mechanism. According to SCM theory, Tae-Eum peoples have a hypoactive lung system and a hyperactive liver system. In this paper we propose a new hypothesis explaining the tendency of obesity in Tae-Eum people in the viewpoint of cell physiology. The hypoactive lung system might imply an attenuated 'respiration' at the cell/subcell level, namely mitochondrial oxygen consumption. Because a functional weakness in mitochondria energy metabolism indicates intrinsic hypo-activity in the consumption (or production) of metabolic energy, we deduced that the tendency can easily induce body weight gain via an increase in anabolism. This relation is also introduced in the graph of cellular metabolic power against body weight. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the clinical data with 863 subjects. Statistical analysis of the data showed that Tae-Eum peoples had relatively a lower cellular metabolic power, and that the percentage of peoples with BMI>25 was significantly higher than that of the other constitutional types.

Keywords

References

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