Have you given up on your determination to shed excess body wight because nothing seems to work, whether dieting, exercising, or regularly visiting well being centers? Well there is some crazy researchers in a US university trying to help people like you, trying to develop a "pill" which probably can be included in the medicine chest for regular use along with umpteen number of other pills required these days to ward of bad effects of life style diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease etc. Though such a scenario is far fetched just now, the ever optimistic scientists are upbeat about the chances of such a pill emerging in not too distant a future. Keep your fingers crossed. The basis of such an optimism is that they were able to identify, after screening thousands of chemicals two specific ones capable of shifting the fat making process in the body through white fat cells to brown fat cells, the latter considered a friendly source of harmless fats that burn easily without getting deposited around the abdomen. Though it may be some what premature to hail these findings, the pioneering scientists deserve a pat on their back. Read further below:
"Researchers at Harvard University say they have identified two chemical compounds that could replace "bad" fat cells in the human body with healthy fat-burning cells, in what may be the first step toward the development of an effective medical treatment – which could even take the form of a pill – to help control weight gain. Not all fat is created equal. While white fat cells store energy as lipids and contribute to obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the less common brown fat cells pack energy in iron-rich mitochondria, have been shown to lower triglyceride levels and insulin resistance in mice, and appear to be correlated with lower body weight in humans. Brown fat makes up about five percent of the body mass of healthy newborns, helping them keep warm, and is still present in lower quantities in our neck and shoulders as adults, where it helps burn the white fat cells. Associate professor Chad Cowan and colleagues at Harvard say they have developed a way to identify the chemical compounds that induce fat stem cells to produce "good" brown-like fat cells instead of the "bad" white ones. The scientists say they have already used their system to pinpoint two such compounds that can accomplish this in humans. Other drugs (viagra included) have been known to be able to turn white fat cells into brown, but their effect is only temporary. This new method, however, is reportedly showing a stable conversion of fat cells over time, which has an exciting potential for long-term health improvement. But turning these two chemicals into a practical treatment is not going to be a straightforward process. Aside from the lengthy medical trials still to come, the two compounds identified so far both target the same molecule – a molecule that contributes to the inflammatory response. The concern here is that tinkering with it by using the compounds over the long term and without modifications could end up compromising the immune system. Cowan's team achieved this result by screening a catalog of only about one thousand compounds. But now, as the first two are being tested on mice to investigate the long-term effects on metabolism and immune system, the researchers are approaching pharmaceutical companies to gain access to a much larger database of over a million compounds, with the hope of finding a candidate that doesn't have the potential adverse effects of the first two."
One interesting question many binge eaters may have is whether such a pill as and when developed and promoted commercially will allow eating to full "heart's" content without facing the adverse consequences that is the rule of the day!. It is very common to day for people to pop in a Unienzyme dragee or antacids like Digene or Gelusil after a heavy meal and will this new pill help the people to eat much more than what they really need or eat foods which are known to cause over weight? No way, because any pill one takes based on synthetic chemicals is likely to have side effects and consumption of such pills must be limited to the bare minimum, that too for therapeutic purpose only.
V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
