Research: Vaccine for Weight Control

health1st · September 11, 2006

From USA Weekend, September 8-10, 2006

Attached doc has more but here is my summary:

Taking a shot at obesity

A hormone called ghrelin regulates how we use food energy which includes maintaining weight and appetite stimulation.

The problem: Ghrelin levels go up when we diet which then slows down how rapidly your body metabolizes fat and it then stimulates your appetite. It is natures way of preserving stored energy during times of famine.

At this time the vaccine has only been used on rats but it raises interesting questions. If this vaccine works as well in humans as it seems to have worked in rats, it may be a turning point in our battle against obesity.

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My thoughts: We are not just weak willed slugs! There is really a physical mechanism that makes us feel like we are starving when we try to lose weight even thought we are obese. Yeah! I can relate to the feeling of starving. Also, this research helps explain why the lap band works. it fools the ghrelin into thinking we have enough food for today!

Vaccine Help Obesity 9.06.pdf

vinesqueen · September 12, 2006

they have no idea what makes people fat. None at all. Last year it was Leptin.

It isn't even as easy as calories in vs calories out. They dont' even know why or how the band works. They think they know, but they are not 100% sure of why it works.

Tired_Old_Man · September 12, 2006

From USA Weekend, September 8-10, 2006
Attached doc has more but here is my summary:

Taking a shot at obesity

A hormone called ghrelin regulates how we use food energy which includes maintaining weight and appetite stimulation.

Thank you for the very interesting article. I have been reading about ghrelin for at least 4 years if not longer. I have been hoping that this research would produce results which would lead to medications that will save us from ourselves.

The American lifestyle is killing us. We are teaching our children, inadvertently I'm sure, to destroy their internal mechanisms for regulation of weight and sugar/fat in their systems.

Profit is king while the health of the people and health of our planet are pawns in this marketing chess game. :help:

no.name · September 12, 2006

Can't work since the problem is all in the mind unless it's a mind altering injection.

Tired_Old_Man · September 12, 2006

There are two types of hunger that I go through.

One is in the mind caused by my emotional problems that started in childhood (and which are too personal and would take too long to discuss).

Then there are other times that I am physically hungry. Ghrelin has been researched for years. I remember reading that ghrelin was produced in the stomach and people who have much of their stomach removed for gastric bypass surgery don't produce as much ghrelin as they lose weight as people who lose the same amount of weight without (partial) stomach removal.

I can tell the difference between the two hungers because with one I find myself eating even when I feel full. I find myself craving though not hungry. I find myself day-dreaming about what to eat next, though not hungry. I can't wait for the next commercial, so I can get up a go to the kitchen. That is head hunger.

faybie · September 12, 2006

This is interesting. My mother was telling me about this. She wanted me to wait and get one of these shots instead of getting my band. LOL. Needless to say, I am very happy with my choice.

It would be interesting if it works. I could see how it would be used as a tool to keep you from going into starvation mode when dieting, but I think it would also take effort on the one receiving the shot not to succumb to their head hunger. If I could overcome my head hunger, I wouldn't have needed the band.

health1st · September 19, 2006

I have to (or maybe want to?) believe that there is some physical reason for obesity coupled with heredity, emotional, & environmental factors. The obese people I know well are very bright, successful in all aspects of their lives, but not their weight. I can lose weight but then I feel like I'm starving so this research makes sense to me.

Tired old Man: I agree with you. I lived in Amsterdam back in 1996 for a short while and at that time there were no advertisements for food anywhere, no TV that I could understand, very few McDonald's, meals in restaurants were savored slowly and I walked everywhere. With NO effort on my part I lost weight because there were no "cues" to EAT junk or just EAT. As soon as I got back stateside and entered the airport, yikes, food advertisements everywhere! And of course, I gained back the weight I'd lost.

I take full responsibility for what I put in my mouth, it is my choice. But there are some environments (and cultures) that have less emphasis on food/eating and less advertisements where it is more conducive to eating healthy!