From the London Free Press...
"Belly fat breeds fat
by John Miner, Sun Media
Tue, April 15, 2008
Your belly fat could be making you hungrier, triggering you to eat more and making you even fatter, London scientists have discovered.
“It is a vicious cycle,” said Lawson Health Research’s Dr. Kaiping Yang, a professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Yang and his colleagues have discovered the hormone that stimulates appetite in the brain, neuropeptide, is also produced in abdominal fat. Previously it was believed it was made only in the brain.
If, as the Lawson scientists now suspect, neuropeptide from belly fat makes it into the blood stream and to the brain, it could explain why some people just get fatter and fatter.
“You put on pounds and produce more NPY (neuropeptide) and more NPY and it travels to the brain. Now you are hungry and need to eat,” Yang said. “This could explain why obese people are constantly hungry.” There’s more bad news.
Neuropeptide also increases the number of fat cells by stimulating the replication of fat cell precursor cells. The precursor cells then change into fat cells.
The Lawson researchers are working to confirm neuropeptide produced in abdominal fat makes its way into the blood stream, Yang said.
If that’s proven, it could open the door to new treatments for obesity that block neuropeptide production in fat cells.
“To get into the area of the brain where NPY is produced, it is very, very difficult. Targeting fat is much easier. With fat we could inject a chemical to inhibit NPY production,” Yang said. Abdominal fat has been identified as more dangerous than other fat, raising the risk for Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and some cancers.
It would be much easier to use drugs to prevent obesity than to treat the diseases caused by fat, Yang said."
And from Newstrack India:
"Yang said, “This may lead to a vicious cycle where NPY produced in the brain causes you to eat more and therefore gain more fat around your middle. And then that fat produces more NYP hormone, which leads to even more fat cells.”
“If you can detect NPY early and identify those at risk for abdominal obesity, we can then target therapy to turn off NPY,” Yang said.
"It would be much easier to use drugs to prevent obesity than to treat the diseases caused by obesity," he added."
LINKS:
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/08_02/OverweightREX_468x313.jpg
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/3163
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2008/04/15/5294826.html
Follow on Buzz
Posts
