Food Intake, Fuel Homeostasis, and the Autonomic Nervous System

Food intake, fuel homeostasis, and the autonomic nervous system.

The mobilization, storage and utilization of the different energy substrates is regulated by sensitive and very specific hormonal and neural mechanisms. Increased parasympathetic activity leads to storage of glucose and free fatty acids (FFA) while activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) results in the mobilization of FFA and glucose from storage tissues. The ...

Central nervous system regulation of food intake.

Introduction Some 50 years ago, Gordon Kennedy introduced the hypothesis that body fat stores are subject to homeostatic regulation through a process in which afferent signals generated in proportion to body fat mass provide negative feedback to brain areas involved in the control of food intake (1). He further proposed that the central nervous system response to this input is fundamentally cat...

The Autonomic Nervous System

T sweating sunbather lying quietly in the summer sun or the racing heart and “hair-standing-on-end” sensations experienced by a person suddenly frightened by a horror movie are familiar examples of the body responding automatically to changes in the physical or emotional environment. These responses occur as a result of the actions of the autonomic portion of the nervous system and take place w...

The Autonomic Nervous System

Nervous regulation of food intake.

Q LORIC BALANCE depends upon the regulation of biologic energy exchange. Four important variables are concerned in energy balance : ( 1) food intake, (2) energy storage, (3) energy utilization through activity or work and (4) loss of energy in the production of heat. The caloric balance would thus be regulated by the various mechanisms which regulate the caloric intake in the form of food intak...