Overweight or obesity can increase a person’s risk of getting diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and even heart disease. Therefore, if one gets too heavy, the doctor will advise him or her to watch the diet; cutting down the amount of food is usually recommended.
If someone tells you that you can eat what you want and you can still lose weight, do you believe it? Many of us would just laugh and ignore because this contradicts to the many advices that we have heard so far. However, perhaps in the near future, things may change because scientists had found a breakthrough that could pave the way for fat-burning drugs.
A recent research discovered a way to help people lose weight without cutting back on food. The study was conducted by scientists at the Howard Florey Institute, Victoria University, La Trobe University, Deakin University, the Baker Institute and the University of Melbourne. The findings, which were published on April 29, 2008 in the United States-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could be used to develop drugs to assist weight loss.
The Australian researchers found that by manipulating fat cells in mice, they were able to speed up the animals' metabolisms. If a particular enzyme, known as “Angiotensin Converting Enzyme” (ACE), in a mouse was removed, it could eat the same amount as other mice yet burn more calories, and thus gain less weight.
Specifically, mice without ACE were 20 percent lighter than the normal mice and had 50 to 60 percent less body fat. It also appeared that the slimmer mice have less chance of developing diabetes since they processed sugar faster than the normal mice.
Drugs that impair the action of ACE already exist but they are mostly used to combat high blood pressure. Therefore, maybe what the scientists can do is to find the right dosage of hypertension (high blood pressure) medication, or develop a new type of drug of the same class and use it as weight-loss pills.
Nevertheless, the scientists had not found why the genetic manipulation could lead to weight loss, and they do not know whether this will work in humans. Thus, more research may be required to find out the unknown before human trial can begin.
If someone tells you that you can eat what you want and you can still lose weight, do you believe it? Many of us would just laugh and ignore because this contradicts to the many advices that we have heard so far. However, perhaps in the near future, things may change because scientists had found a breakthrough that could pave the way for fat-burning drugs.
A recent research discovered a way to help people lose weight without cutting back on food. The study was conducted by scientists at the Howard Florey Institute, Victoria University, La Trobe University, Deakin University, the Baker Institute and the University of Melbourne. The findings, which were published on April 29, 2008 in the United States-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could be used to develop drugs to assist weight loss.
The Australian researchers found that by manipulating fat cells in mice, they were able to speed up the animals' metabolisms. If a particular enzyme, known as “Angiotensin Converting Enzyme” (ACE), in a mouse was removed, it could eat the same amount as other mice yet burn more calories, and thus gain less weight.
Specifically, mice without ACE were 20 percent lighter than the normal mice and had 50 to 60 percent less body fat. It also appeared that the slimmer mice have less chance of developing diabetes since they processed sugar faster than the normal mice.
Drugs that impair the action of ACE already exist but they are mostly used to combat high blood pressure. Therefore, maybe what the scientists can do is to find the right dosage of hypertension (high blood pressure) medication, or develop a new type of drug of the same class and use it as weight-loss pills.
Nevertheless, the scientists had not found why the genetic manipulation could lead to weight loss, and they do not know whether this will work in humans. Thus, more research may be required to find out the unknown before human trial can begin.
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