Scientists Successfully Suppress "Hunger Hormone"

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have developed a non-invasive method of lowering the amount of “hunger hormone" ghrelin in pigs in turn making them stop gaining weight.

Ghrelin is released by the empty stomach into the bloodstream before moving to the brain, where it triggers feelings of hunger and by blocking the body's response to ghrelin, it will give same results as bariatric (weight-loss) surgery.

Approximately, there are more than 1 billion overweight adults, at least 300 million of them worldwide. In the UK only, two-thirds of all adults and one-third of children are obese and the condition causes 1,000 deaths a week. Another fifteen years and nearly 86 percent of men will be overweight.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1 in 4 adults in the United States are overweight and nearly 59 million are considered obese.

The scientists conducted the experiment on 10 healthy pigs (a species with anatomy that closely resembles our own) over a four-week period. They used a minimally invasive method of chemically vaporizing a blood vessel that feeds blood to the top section, called fundus, of your stomach. Fundus is responsible for the production of 90 % of the body’s ghrelin, and if the blood vessel is destroyed body will be unable to produce enough of the hormone and appetite will be naturally reduced.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Aravind Arepally, of the John Hopkins University School of Medicine said, "With gastricdefine arterydefine chemical embolization, called GACE, there's no major surgery."

"In our study in pigs, this procedure produced an effect similar to bariatric surgery by suppressing ghrelin levels and subsequently lowering appetite," he added.

The result showed that there was 80 percent drop in the blood 'ghrelin' levels of those pigs (6 growing pigs) to which the procedure had been applied while another two pigs that didn't undergo the procedure continued to fatten.

“Appetite is complicated because it involves both the mind and body,” outlined Arepally. He continued, “Ghrelin fluctuates throughout the day, responding to all kinds of emotional and physiological scenarios. But even if the brain says ‘produce more ghrelin’, GACE physically prevents the stomach from making the hunger hormone.”

In order to reduce the waist size, doctors are increasingly using another kind of surgery which can reduce the appetite, Arepally said. In 2007, the researchers reported in the journal Lancet that the operations, called bariatric surgeries (where a portion of the colondefine or stomach is removed to suppress appetite) have increased more than fivefold in five years and the surgery carries with it substantial side effects and complications.

According to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, in 2007 nearly 117,000 Americans underwent bariatric surgery, which is very expensive costing around $25,000.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Being overweight does not only cause heart disease and diabetes but also affects a person's joints, mood, energy levels, breathing and sleep. Obesity is also associated with certain types of cancerdefine, as well as psychological problems, higher medical costs and premature death. So, being overweight can impact a person's quality of life entirely.

The “invasive surgery” is safe and simple and is best for those obese people who have tried all other methods of weight control such as diet, exercise and failed and do not want to go under knives.