Frequent dieting may damage the immune system, new research suggests.
A US study of 114 healthy, overweight, sedentary, postmenopausal women has found that NK ymeasure of immune fucntion, was significantly lower in people who had ever intentionally lost 10 pounds or more (24.7%) compared with those who had not (31.1%).
NK cytotoxicity became increasingly lower the more often a subject reported having lost 10 pounds or more.
The results are published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association
'Two or more episodes were associated with substantially decreased NK cytotoxicity, with the lowest NK cytotoxicity seen in those reporting the highest frequency of weight loss,'
Reference: Shade E et al (2003) Frequent intentional weight loss is associated with lower natural killer cell cytotoxicity in postmenopausal women: Possible long-term immune effects J Am Diet Assoc 2004;104 903-912