A Link Between Synthetic Fire Retardants and Obesity? 

Synthetic fire retardants are found in a multitude of household items you wouldn’t want catching fire like furniture and electronics, but the synthetic material seems to contain chemicals that can cause metabolic and liver problems that can lead to insulin resistance that, in turn, can be a factor in obesity. This study was published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health and conducted by researchers out of the University of New Hampshire’s College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.

They found that when laboratory rats were exposed to these synthetic flame retardants, the result was metabolic obesity and enlarged livers. The tested rat fat cells were tested for one month and that is when the researchers saw the cells developed sensitivity to hormones that mimics insulin resistance.

These two features – insulin resistance and epinephrine sensitivity – are two features of fat cells from people who are above normal weight. And that’s what we were seeing in our rats. Even though our rats had not gained weight, they were experiencing ‘metabolic obesity’,” the main researcher said.

For more information, read the full study.

http://colsa.unh.edu/aes/careyobesity2