Saturday, December 5, 2009

Are We Battling Biology or Bad Habit? Hormone may cause Obesity

This is from an article at Science Daily.com:

Action Of Ghrelin Hormone Increases Appetite And Favors Accumulation Of Abdominal Fat

"ScienceDaily (May 26, 2009) — The ghrelin hormone not only stimulates the brain giving rise to an increase in appetite, but also favours the accumulation of lipids in visceral fatty tissue, located in the abdominal zone and considered to be the most harmful. This is the conclusion of research undertaken at Metabolic Research Laboratory of the University Hospital of Navarra, published recently in the International Journal of Obesity......
It is precisely this accumulated fat in the region of the abdomen that is deemed to be most harmful, as it is accompanied by comorbilities, visceral obesity being related to higher blood pressure or type 2 diabetes. Moreover, being located in the abdominal zone and in direct contact with the liver, this type of fatty tissue favours the formation of liver fat and increases the risk of developing resistance to insulin. Normally, on being associated with hypertension, high levels of triglycerides, resistance to insulin and hypercholesterolemia, visceral fat favours the metabolic syndrome, the researcher pointed out."

Japanese scientists discovered ghrelin in 1999. A year later, American researchers found that it drives appetite.  


Ghrelin is mainly created in the stomach, where it circulates in the blood, eventually sending a message to the brain to stimulate appetite. The Implication is that this is one of the ways in which the body fights against weight loss, which might help explain why millions of yo-yo dieters can’t keep the weight off. It works to keep up the weight..for survival purposes.


With this knowledge there has been product development that can decrease the effect of ghrelin by up to 40% helping to curb the appetite.  Obesity is becoming a major health issue and understanding the science of getting thin can help develop aids to work against obesity and help people lose weight and keep it off.