Last summer, I'd found & read, (through PubMed, I think), several interesting papers on the effects of obesity on cognitive behaviour. I expected a few perhaps minor effects & was surprised to see how many serious ones were possible.
What you posit about Chantal is certainly possible.
All deathfats have prefrontal cortex damage honestly.
There’s a type of damage called hypoxia where, over time, your cells get oxygen, but not enough to sustain them. If your cells don’t get enough oxygen, they die. When cells die, the cellular membrane disintegrates and all sorts of byproducts get exposed to cells near the dead exploded cell, leading to a second cascade of cellular damage and death. There are actually different patterns of brain damage seen on MRI between acute profound anoxic events and partial prolonged hypoxic events, but the gist is the same.
Once your brain cells are dead, they don’t really grow back. Fluid takes its place. And as far as the actual cells that die, usually it’s the ones farthest from a nourishing source. Just like the extremities are the first to go with diabetic complications, the “extremities” of the brain are often the first to go when there’s lack of adequate oxygen. The part of the brain furthest from oxygen sources is the prefrontal cortex.
The prefrontal cortex is also really complicated, so damage there manifests in a lot of personality disturbance, issues with motivation and attention, memory holes, and behavioral problems. To add insult to injury, if you get enough dead brain cells, your brain in sending neuronal impulses can and will short-circuit, turning those electrical impulses into a seizure (think absence seizures).
Hyperglycemia can also cause brain damage. All sorts of cell damage, really, but also brain damage that will show up on imaging.
Deathfats very easily become hypoxic or anoxic. That’s why they have to wear CPAP machines at night: to create Continuous Positive Air Pressure to force air into them so the weight of their own fat doesn’t crush their chest or glottis shut. They also get out of breath at the absolute bare minimum of effort. On top of that, Chantal has pulmonary (lung) disease and smokes. She’s doing nothing to stop the kinds of cellular damage that result from hypoxia and you can see it in her failing organs, up to and including her skin. Same for her likely DM2.
This is on top of whatever originally made them think food was love, or whatever. It’s crazy to think that all of this is completely avoidable if you’re not actually hell-bent on eating yourself out of being able to fit in the MRI that would show the damage.
source: have clients with brain injuries from birth trauma and other medical issues, know way too much about this shit on a professional level