Can you lose weight with a ‘hunger quenching’ pill? –

The appetite suppression benefits of exercise may be offset in the future by simply taking a pill.

That’s because researchers have discovered an “anti-hunger” molecule apparently produced by strenuous exercise.

Fatty rats given a hunger suppressant called lac-phe voluntarily ate 30 percent less.

Tests showed that this led to the rodents weighing less, having less body fat, and being better able to tolerate glucose, which academics say is “indicative of diabetes reversal.”

Graph showing the body weight of mice given the chemical (red) daily versus mice given control (blue) for ten days

Graph showing: amount of food consumed daily (red) by rats versus rats fed a control (blue) for ten days

The graph shows: the amount of food consumed by mice receiving the chemical (red) and the mice receiving the control (blue) within 12 hours following injection

Dr. Yong Xu, a pediatrician at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, said her work could pave the way for a fat-fighting pill in the future.

The new scientist said: ‘This could lead to the development of a pill that could be used directly to suppress appetite for some people who are unable to exercise easily due to other conditions, aging or bone problems.

“We have applied for a patent to use this knowledge to treat human diseases like obesity.”

The authors, including a team from Stanford University, said the molecule may be responsible for “about 25% of the anti-obesity effects of exercise.”

The discovery isn’t the first time the concept of the “exercise pill” has been proposed.

Dozens of studies have investigated the chemical secrets of sweating. But despite the demand for couch potatoes, none have yet hit the market.

The NHS has already approved pills and injections to help people lose weight, but they only help people reduce body fat.

“Camouflage exercises”, called the pills of the future, also show promise in the treatment of conditions such as osteoporosis in dementia – weakening of the bones.

With only the ability to suppress appetite discovered so far, more studies are needed to learn more about how lac-phe affects the brain.

For nature research, scientists analyzed the blood of five mice running on the treadmill.

Lac-phe levels peaked more than any other compound.

To examine its effects, six obese mice were given daily injections of lac-phe for 10 days.

Six other fat mice were injected with saline during the same period to ensure that the molecule itself had an effect.

Rodents given lak-phe ate half as much food as the control group 12 hours after the first injection.

They ate about 30 percent less in 10 days.

On day eight, mice treated with lac-phe had lost 3 g of body fat, a statistically significant reduction given that the average mouse weighed about 20 g.

Dr. “We thought, ‘Wow, all this evidence really suggests that lac-phe goes to the brain to suppress nutrition,'” said Jonathan Long, a pathologist at Stanford University.

The researchers also tested lac-phe on lean mice and found it had no effect on their diet.

This suggested that the chemical alone suppressed food consumption in obese mice, the researchers said. The difference is still being explored by the team.

Follow-up experiments revealed that lac-phe levels also increased after exercise in racehorses and humans.

Thirty-six healthy adults were asked to run on a treadmill before their blood was drawn.

Eight men, ages 22 to 30, took the same tests after lifting weights and sprinting.

Blood was drawn from racehorses before and after the race.

The researchers suggested that while the appetite-suppressing effects have yet to be tested in humans, there is no reason to believe they cannot be compared to mice.

Obesity with a BMI greater than 30 puts people at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, certain cancers and stroke.

By 2020, around 26% of men and 29% of women in the UK are obese. In the same year, about 41.9% of adults in the United States were obese.