A new treatment that combines two different hormones has shown that it is possible to reduce appetite - according to a new study presented this month at the annual conference of the Society of Endocrinology held in Great Britain. This preliminary study presents the first ever proof of a human treatment that could be used against diabetes and obesity.
A new treatment that combines two different hormones has shown that it is possible to reduce appetite - according to a new study presented this month at the annual conference of the Society of Endocrinology held in Great Britain. This preliminary study presents the first ever proof of a human treatment that could be used against diabetes and obesity.
Previous findings obtained from animal experiments show that a combination of two hormones, glucagon and GLP-1, may be effective in the fight against obesity and diabetes. These hormones have crucial roles in regulating the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood - the hormone glucagon acts in the opposite direction to the activity of the hormone insulin and prevents the accumulation of glucose in fat cells and the liver, causing an increase in the levels of glucose in the blood. The GLP-1 hormone stimulates the release of insulin which causes a reduction in blood glucose levels as well as a reduction in the feeling of hunger regulated by the brain.
The research team tried to examine whether administering the combination of these two hormones might work together to reduce the feeling of hunger. In a small-scale study, 16 volunteers were assigned to four types of treatment lasting 120 minutes and for three days - 1) glucagon only, 2) GLP-1 only, 3) a combination of glucagon and GLP-1, 4) saline as a control group. The research team provided the subjects with a meal within 90 minutes, measured the amount of oxygen consumed, took blood samples to measure sugar levels and hormones responsible for blood metabolism, and measured pulse and blood pressure before and during the experiment. These measurements provide information regarding energy consumption, energy burning, control of blood sugar levels and the safety of treatment doses.
Energy consumption during the meal was 1086 kilocalories for the control group compared to 879 kilocalories for the group that received the combination of hormones - a significant reduction of 13%. This reduction was also not seen for the treatment of each of the two different hormones separately - 1086 for glucagon alone and 1052 for GLP-1 alone. There was also a trend of an increase in energy burning (although its rate was not statistically significant) for the group treated with the combination of hormones. The treatment doses tested were safe for humans.
The data obtained from this preliminary study indicate that the promising findings obtained following the treatment of the combination of hormones in mice can also be obtained for humans. The level of appetite was significantly reduced during the combined treatment compared to the separate hormone treatments. The research group now needs to study this combination of hormones in a larger group of subjects and for longer periods in order to examine whether the treatment is also effective in the long term.
Professor Stefan Blum, Head of the Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Imperial College London, said: "The hormones glucagon and GLP-1 are both used in the body to control blood sugar levels and metabolism, so there is great interest in using them to find new treatments against obesity and type 2 diabetes .”
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An interesting article in theory. Overweight people don't eat because they are hungry! And no one can suppress the appetite. Because depression needs to be treated first! And the way is much simpler