If you are suffering from yo yo dieting syndrome or you just cannot lose that stubborn weight, scientists are now testing an anti-obesity vaccine in mice. Now, make no mistake. This vaccine will not help you if you are simply overweight because you eat unhealthy foods by choice and refuse to exercise, it won’t help you. This vaccine is no free pass to live an unhealthy lifestyle and not suffer the consequences thereof.
But when tested in mice, this vaccine showed at the Scripps Research Institute that it could slow weight gain and reduce body fat, again in mice. It has not yet been tested on humans. It works with the hormone ghrelin, which is known to regulate energy usage. Ghrelin promotes weight gain and storage in the body, decreasing the body’s natural breakdown of fat. This vaccine tackles it and takes it down.
When you diet, the body actually produces higher levels of ghrelin in an effort to protect itself. It thinks that you are starving and therefore slows weight loss, slows metabolism, stores body fat, and increases appetite. It is a response to the idea of “feast or famine.” My main question would be, why is it that seemingly only Americans and those of a few other countries seem to seriously suffer from this hormone?
Either way, Kim Janda PhD, co-author of a paper on the vaccine and chemistry professor at Scripps Institute states “We’re not claiming that our study answers the question of obesity treatment once and for all. What we are saying—and what our study confirms—is that this looks like a serious workable solution to the problem. And while much more research is needed to understand the full therapeutic potential of immunopharmacotherapy in combating obesity, these initial results are extremely positive.
But while I can say it a million times, researchers can say it a million times, everybody can say it a million times, there are some that will look at this as a free pass when it’s not. You still have to diet and exercise, you still have to live a healthy lifestyle. The only difference is this stops your body from panicking and going into self preservation mode, and this is of course assuming that it would work on humans. So far, it has only been tested on mice.