Obesity vaccine

[Phlegm]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vaccine that slows down a key hunger hormone kept rats from gaining weight, even when they over ate, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

The team at The Scripps Research Institute in California cautioned that such a vaccine is a long way from being tested in human volunteers, and that it may not work in people.

But the study shed light on how hunger and weight gain work, they reported in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The vaccine targeted ghrelin, a hormone discovered in 1999 that helps control appetite in animals and people.

"It appears that active vaccination against ghrelin is one avenue that can slow weight gain and fat build-up in the body," said Kim Janda, a chemistry professor who helped direct the study.

"The study shows our vaccine slows weight gain and decreases stored fat in rats," Janda added.

"While food intake was unchanged in all testing groups, those who were given the most effective vaccines gained the least amount of weight."

The vaccine also appears to help control whether the body stores fat or burns it off, Janda said in a statement.

"To have an impact on appetite and weight gain, ghrelin first has to move from the bloodstream into the brain, where, over long periods, it stimulates the retention of a level of stored energy as fat," Janda said.

"Our study is the first published evidence proving that preventing ghrelin from reaching the central nervous system can produce a desired reduction in weight gain."

Janda hopes the vaccine might help people avoid the weight loss and weight gain seen in "yo-yo" dieting.

"We're not claiming that our study answers the question of obesity treatment once and for all," Janda said.

"What we are saying, and what our study confirms, is that this looks like a serious workable solution to the problem."

The researchers vaccinated mature male rats that were then provided an unlimited amount of low-energy, low-fat food. Unvaccinated rats gained more weight than vaccinated rats fed the same food.

"Whether active immunization against ghrelin would help prevent the development of obesity caused by ... high-fat 'Western' diets, or would facilitate weight loss once obesity is established" remains uncertain, the researchers wrote.

[Gidan]

Or people could just not goto McDonalds every day and start exercising on a regular basis.

[Darcler]

Yep, this is great. Instead of people putting down the hohos, they can just get a shot to break down fat. Lovely.

[araby]

Now I want McDonald's. goddammit isn't this the fit forum

[Jay]

I could go for some nuggets right now...

[Martrae]

Be good for those people that yo-yo dieted so much their metabolism is non-existant, though.

[Gidan]

yo-yo dieters drive me nuts. I just dont understand how somone can think that changing their eating habbits for a few months can make a life long change. I have know so many, they will say "I need to lost 20 lbs" They will bust their ass and lose it, then go right back to how they were before. Then they would get really depressed having no clue how they gained it all back. When I tried to explain it, suddenly it was all my fault, so I gave up.

Change the way you live your life and you can change the way you look. If your not willing to make the change permenently, dont fucking bother.

[Martrae]

My mother is a classic yo-yo'er. She's fought her weight my whole life. Every new diet that came out she tried...and none of them worked for more than a couple months.

The problem is she never learned to just eat healthy. She's not one of those 'I need to lose 10 pounds' for a party dieters. She really wanted to lose weight and keep it off, but everything failed her. Weight Watchers came the closest. She was on that for several months and was shedding weight like crazy, but then I my dad got laid off and she couldn't afford to go. I guess she needed that accountability....or else we just couldn't afford the healthier foods, I dunno.

Anyway, now she's 60 and has peanut and wheat allergies and doesn't eat more than could feed a bird and she's not losing any of the weight she's always had. It's sad really.

So anyway, for all of you that think it's just a simple matter of putting down the ho-hos and going for a walk, I've got news for you. My mom was never a junk food eater, we never went to McDonald's or any other fast food place, we never ate out at all really. She's done every diet known to man and even a few she made up herself. She's got a library of weight loss books and exercise equipment from hell. It's not that she doesn't have will-power....some of those diets you'd have to have will like iron to last more than a day. Her problem is the current information about diet and weight loss wasn't available to her and now her metabolism is a shambles.

It's really only the last few years that a concensus has been made about the safest and most effective way to lose weight and you still have stuff like Atkins and Phen-phen messing with people's minds. It's not because people are lazy, it's because they are tired of trying and failing so they grasp at anything that holds even a little bit of the light at the end of the weight tunnel.

[Diekan]

the trick to losing weight is eating lots of cake and pie. wash it down with a 2 liter of coke. do this for a year and you will lose 100 pounds.

[Gidan]

Weight Watchers came the closest. She was on that for several months and was shedding weight like crazy, but then I my dad got laid off and she couldn't afford to go. I guess she needed that accountability....or else we just couldn't afford the healthier foods, I dunno.

I am not trying to be an ass (though I tend to be good at it even when I don’t try), but it sounds like your mothers problem was what she ate or how she lived. You said it yourself. Weight Watchers was working, it didn't require any special medication or drugs, just a lifestyle change.

IMO the word diet in itself is a curse for anyone who wants to lose weight. It gives the impression that you can do it for a while then you’re done. Anyone can lose weight if they are willing to work at it. Get to the gym, walk do something every day. Don’t sit on your ass. Eat healthy food, this does not mean starving yourself as that really won’t help you either. Eat healthy amounts of good foods. Above all, don’t expect someone else to do the work for you; you are reasonable for keeping yourself going. If you are not capable of sticking to this new lifestyle, then you obviously don’t want it that badly.

A perfect example of dieting, “I need to lose 10 lbs for summer so I can fit into this new bathing suitâ€

[Darcler]

Ok, your mom is a rare(ish) case then. Someone with a metabolism or thyroid disorder.

95% of the other fat people are because they go to McDonalds everyday and sit around *watching* excerise videos but never actually partaking. Absolutely no medical conditions that would prevent them from losing weight, just the lack of will power, which last I checked, was not in medical books as a valid reason to not lose weight.

[Martrae]

I am not trying to be an ass (though I tend to be good at it even when I don’t try), but it sounds like your mothers problem was what she ate or how she lived. You said it yourself. Weight Watchers was working, it didn't require any special medication or drugs, just a lifestyle change.

Exactly, there just wasn't the information available that there is now. Even Weight Watchers at that time didn't really suggest exercise beyond walking and they were all about the quick fix rather than the long haul.

You guys are too young to remember the sometimes dangerous and highly contradictory period before the current weight loss ideas were promoted. You had everything from 'eat arsenic' to 'wear plastic wrapped around your body under your clothes'. There was no agreement even among 'professionals' as to what was safe and healthy. Even now you have the modern equivelent to snake oil salesmen. "Try this little pill and all your weight problems will disappear".

You think people like LS were lazy? No, they just got caught in a web of misinformation until their health was compromised.

[Diekan]

[Diekan]

In all seriousness... I can't see how there could really be any misinformation.

It's not carbs, it's not hormones, it's not genes... it's simple math.

If you eat more calories than you burn - you gain.
If you burn more calories than you eat - you lose.

That's it... it's as simple as that.

0.01% of over weight people might have a medical condition that can be legitimately blamed for their obesity. 99.9% of the others are simply eating to much and not working out enough.

I sware humans are no smarter than lab rats. A few commercials tell you "it's not your fault, it's hormones!" And, like a rat punching a feeding lever - out comes the credit card.

[Martrae]

You're right...it's so simple there isn't a multi-billion dollar industry out there that's thriving because people don't know what works and what doesn't.

[Gidan]

I disagree. I think there is a multi billion dollar industry out there because people are not willing to do what they know they need to and are looking for a quick solution.

If this is a result of lack of knowlege, why is it that Americans seem to be the ones suffering most from it? What information did other countries have that we didn't?

[Zanchief]

You're right...it's so simple there isn't a multi-billion dollar industry out there that's thriving because people don't know what works and what doesn't.

He's right, Mart. Yea, it's harder for some people, but it doesn't mean it's impossible.

Eat sensible and exercise, it's never failed anyone who's actually don it.

[Martrae]

I never said it did.

I said some people just don't know what is the 'right' thing to do. The proper nutrition guidelines have changed so much over the years, who's to say what it the next 'right thing to do' is.

[Lyion]

In all seriousness... I can't see how there could really be any misinformation.

It's not carbs, it's not hormones, it's not genes... it's simple math.

If you eat more calories than you burn - you gain.
If you burn more calories than you eat - you lose.

That's it... it's as simple as that.

0.01% of over weight people might have a medical condition that can be legitimately blamed for their obesity. 99.9% of the others are simply eating to much and not working out enough.

I sware humans are no smarter than lab rats. A few commercials tell you "it's not your fault, it's hormones!" And, like a rat punching a feeding lever - out comes the credit card.

It's like chicks and you, Diekan. Some people have issues that aren't really simple to solve.

If things were simple, we'd have no druggies, smokers, alcoholics, or EQ players.

[leah]

I never said it did.

I said some people just don't know what is the 'right' thing to do. The proper nutrition guidelines have changed so much over the years, who's to say what it the next 'right thing to do' is.

she's right; people still contradict themselves over what's healthy and what's not--the "got milk?" people say milk is necessary for healthy bones and whatnot, but there are also people who say cow's milk is not meant to be ingested by human adults.

who knows who's right?

as someone who's been all over this weight-loss issue, there really is no substitute for hard work and sensible eating. i think what people should REALLY focus on addressing here is the REASONS people get overweight--inactivity aside, overeating itself can have deep-set psychological and emotional causes; emotional eaters, for example, one of which i most certainly am. addressing those issues, as well as trying to get our nation to realize that faster isn't always better, and that there isn't some magic pill that's going to make all their weight-loss dreams come true, is what America really needs to work on.

[leah]

also! i know all the negative parts about the atkins fad diet, since i did it for so long, but i must play devil's advocate here and say that there are a lot of really important lessons to be learned from it; for example, after having done that diet, i know that if i'm hungry or needing a snack, a handful of almonds (or something else with lots of protein) will do more to keep me satisfied than a bunch of chips ahoy cookies.

but yes, i do realize that the atkins diet is batshit crazy.

[Diekan]

Oh come on. Do you REALLY need someone telling you that veggies are better for you than chocolate cake? Do people REALLY need to be told that Pepsi is bad for you?

Yes, there are people who have legit problems - but as I've already said - they are far far far far far few in between. The vast majority of folks, out there, who are over weight, are so because they eat way to much junk food and don't work out. It's that simple.

People, by nature, are lazy. Add to that the fact we live in a culture that indulges in instant gradification and whala you have the perfect environment to sell quick fix snake oils to any and everyone who's to lazy to go to the gym and to unwilling to put the cake away.

I believe people know what the answer is - they just don't want to do it.

I just don't buy the argument that people "don't know what to do, or what works." It doesn't take research to know that Fruity Pebbles are worse for you than Oatmeal.

Come on now...

[leah]

i never said that putting the cake away was an obvious decision (though you can keep the cake out and just have a reasonable portion... portion sizes are what kill us, even healthy food can make you gain weight if you eat too much). i'm just saying that some of these guidelines can be misleading; for example, i'm sure a lot of oatmeal you can get these days have just as much sugar as fruity pebbles, or even more. but intuitively, we tell ourselves that this brown sugar-maple oatmeal is better for us than a serving of fruity pebbles, when in fact they could be equal.

healthy, balanced meals of decent proportions, in combination with regular exercise, is the only way to go.

[Martrae]

Right now they are discovering that girls who drink your standard regular old milk are starting puberty early because of all the growth hormones the cows take. How messed up is that?

[Gidan]

Should be like me and only use milk for their coffee. The stuff taste awful.