University of Cincinnati associate professor Randy Seeley says there are drugs on the market that act in your brain to regulate food intake, like sibutramine (the active ingredient in Meridia). Such drugs only have "modest effects."Furthermore, most of the herbal treatments, he says, don’t carry an FDA approval.
"Nobody has proven they work over the long haul," he explains. "All the FDA says is that people don't drop dead when they take it. There are lots of claims that things work. Everybody can lose weight for a couple of months. Why? Because you are watching what you are doing."
He maintains the placebo effect accounts for most dieters' successes. "You don’t have to give these people anything. If I tell you I’m going to weigh you every week for the next three months, most people will lose weight. You lose weight for three months, then you gain the weight back.
"Then slick marketers get to blame the person who gained it back and sell them something else. It is the best repeat customer base in the country -- a wonderful scam."
Scientists at UC aren't focusing on the next miracle drug. Instead, they are delving into why it is so hard to keep weight off. The obesity team's work stems from a discovery in 1994 that found, in short, fat cells produce a hormone called leptin and leptin levels indicate to your brain how much fat you have. When a significant amount of fat goes away, leptin levels fall, and the brain responds by slowing down your metabolism and telling you to eat.
Essentially, the UC team is working on ways to dupe the brain.
"The body has a system that was designed to keep you from starving to death," Seeley says. "It is essential. It is important. Trying to trick it is not easy.
"It was designed to get you out of the cave, to go face the saber-toothed tiger, to hunt and gather and get your food anyway. In an environment where there is a Seven-Eleven store or a UDF on every corner, it is pretty hard to fight that system."
But not impossible. Before coming to UC, Seeley was at the University of Washington, involved in groundbreaking research that discovered rats become obese when their receptors for the hormone leptin are chemically blocked. The research proved that obesity results when receptors in the central nervous system, called melanocortin-4, are turned off and can’t receive the chemical messages that signal the brain to stop eating.
Resulting
studies suggest that a person may become obese because their body is resistant
to the effects of leptin. Soon after publishing his work, Seeley received
job offers from around the country.
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