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Interesting find....
UK Scientists Report Discovery of 'Hunger Hormone'
Reuters
Monday, March 11, 2002
By Richard Woodman
LONDON, Mar 11 (Reuters Health) - British researchers said on Monday they
had isolated a "hunger hormone" that dramatically boosts human food
consumption, raising the prospects of new treatments for both the obese and
the malnourished.
"There is currently little effective medical treatment for obesity and we
are very excited to have taken this step toward a future therapy," said Dr.
Alison Wren, research fellow at Imperial College, London.
Many appetite-controlling mechanisms are in the brain. But Wren said
ghrelin, named after the Hindi word for growth, was the first such hormone
circulating in the blood to have been isolated.
"I am sure there will be pharmaceutical companies looking at this research.
We hope that by targeting ghrelin with specific drugs, it may be possible to
therapeutically control hunger," Wren stated.
"The advantages of this kind of therapy may extend beyond the treatment of
obese patients and include conditions that induce a dangerous loss of
appetite, such as cancer," said fellow researcher Professor Steve Bloom,
head of the Department of Metabolic Medicine at Hammersmith Hospital,
London. "In cases such as this, ghrelin supplements could potentially help
to normalize eating patterns."
Scientists have known for some time that the hormone stimulates hunger in
rats. Now they have shown that it can also make people so ravenous they eat
nearly a third more food than usual.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &
Metabolism, follow a study in which five men and four women volunteers were
given a dose of ghrelin or an inactive placebo and told to eat as much as
they wanted.
One week later, the experiment was repeated, except that those who had been
on placebo now received the hormone, and vice versa.
The results revealed that those volunteers who received the hormone consumed
an average of 28% more calories than those who received the placebo.
"We were trying to mimic levels of ghrelin after an overnight fast and may
have overdone it a bit," Wren told Reuters. But she said other studies also
showed significant differences in food consumption at smaller doses.
Other scientists, however, are cautious about the prospects of an eventual
therapy. They point out that previous enthusiasm about leptin, which was
dubbed the "obesity hormone," turned out to be misplaced and did not lead to
a cure for obesity.
UK Scientists Report Discovery of 'Hunger Hormone'
Reuters
Monday, March 11, 2002
By Richard Woodman
LONDON, Mar 11 (Reuters Health) - British researchers said on Monday they
had isolated a "hunger hormone" that dramatically boosts human food
consumption, raising the prospects of new treatments for both the obese and
the malnourished.
"There is currently little effective medical treatment for obesity and we
are very excited to have taken this step toward a future therapy," said Dr.
Alison Wren, research fellow at Imperial College, London.
Many appetite-controlling mechanisms are in the brain. But Wren said
ghrelin, named after the Hindi word for growth, was the first such hormone
circulating in the blood to have been isolated.
"I am sure there will be pharmaceutical companies looking at this research.
We hope that by targeting ghrelin with specific drugs, it may be possible to
therapeutically control hunger," Wren stated.
"The advantages of this kind of therapy may extend beyond the treatment of
obese patients and include conditions that induce a dangerous loss of
appetite, such as cancer," said fellow researcher Professor Steve Bloom,
head of the Department of Metabolic Medicine at Hammersmith Hospital,
London. "In cases such as this, ghrelin supplements could potentially help
to normalize eating patterns."
Scientists have known for some time that the hormone stimulates hunger in
rats. Now they have shown that it can also make people so ravenous they eat
nearly a third more food than usual.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &
Metabolism, follow a study in which five men and four women volunteers were
given a dose of ghrelin or an inactive placebo and told to eat as much as
they wanted.
One week later, the experiment was repeated, except that those who had been
on placebo now received the hormone, and vice versa.
The results revealed that those volunteers who received the hormone consumed
an average of 28% more calories than those who received the placebo.
"We were trying to mimic levels of ghrelin after an overnight fast and may
have overdone it a bit," Wren told Reuters. But she said other studies also
showed significant differences in food consumption at smaller doses.
Other scientists, however, are cautious about the prospects of an eventual
therapy. They point out that previous enthusiasm about leptin, which was
dubbed the "obesity hormone," turned out to be misplaced and did not lead to
a cure for obesity.
