The human body is home to a myriad of hormones. Each of these unique chemical regulators delegates its own set of bodily functions. The desire to eat, a basic survival mechanism, is no exception. Researchers once believed that hunger originated in the brain, but recent studies have proven otherwise.
Ghrelin is the hunger hormone, and while it was useful during the hunting and gathering era, we just don't need nearly as much today. Most everyone should eat healthy foods and exercise in order to be healthy. But in order to lose weight, a great number of individuals would benefit from ghrelin inhibition, or ghrelin blockers.
People don't neccesarily eat emotionally. Commonly, a person's increased stress levels cause an increase in ghrelin, and as a result, people eat more.There was once a time when stress occured as a result of starvation, so ghrelin would kick in. In today's modern world, stress happens for many reasons, and very rarely is the reason starvation. Ghreln is an old technology. From an evolutionary standpoint, this hormone is nearly obsolete.
But not everyone is overweight, because, in many cases, not everyone has an excess of the hormone. To illustrate, take note of a condition called "lactose intolerance." Individuals with this condition lack the enzyme that enables the digestion of dairy products. Once apon a time, humans did not possess this enzyme at all. Now, most of us do, but a few still don't. Similarly, only a portion of the population experiences problems with ghrelin. It is simply a kink in the evolutionary chain.
So when will the various forms of ghrelin supression become a mainstream treatment in the medical community? To date, there have been at least 3 instances of ghrelin inhibition:
- Some time ago, a woman underwent a surgery during which doctors implanted a pacemaker-like device that controlled the woman's appetite. After a lifetime of fighting a losing battle with her weight, she found slow but steady success with the device.
- John Goodman, of "Roseanne" fame, reportedly began receiving regular injections, which counteract the ghrelin hormone. After being a large man his entire life, the injections gave him a completely new physique.
- An updated version of the gastric bypass procedure requires that surgeons remove the portion of the stomach that produces ghrelin. Logically, patients are far less likely to regain the weight. This method is so effective, in fact, that doctors sometimes have to intervene medically in order for patients to have any appetite at all.
In fact, Cytos, the swiss biotechnology company, has developed a potentially marketable product. Though still in the early testing phase, it already surpasses the treatments developed by other manufacturers. With luck, these ghrelin inhibition methods will eventually be available to the mainstream medical community, much like antibiotics and x-rays. It would certainly be a step in the right direction.
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