By Thomas H. Maugh II, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times. Tribune news services contributed to this report
July 2, 2007
That roll of fat on your belly may be there because of everyday stresses, and researchers think they may know a way to get rid of it.
Studies of mice and monkeys show that repeated stress -- and a high-fat, high-sugar diet -- stimulate release of an appetite hormone called neuropeptide Y, which causes fat to build up in the abdomen, researchers from Georgetown University reported Sunday.
By manipulating levels of that hormone, they could make fat melt from areas where it was not desired and accumulate at sites where it is needed, they wrote in the journal Nature Medicine.
"These are eye-opening findings, because they speak to how the effects of neuropeptide Y in the periphery have been underappreciated," said Arshad Khan, a University of Southern California neuroscientist not involved in the research.
The team hopes to begin human studies within two years.
The research began with a simple study of mice by Dr. Zofia Zukowska of Georgetown and her colleagues. For mice on a normal diet, there wasn't much weight difference between those stressed and those not.
But among those on the fast-food diet, the stressed animals gained twice as much fat in the belly in the first two weeks as those who were not stressed. Some experts urged caution about possible NPY remedies.
"This is very promising, but the average person shouldn't say, 'I can eat whatever I want and wait for that shot to take it all away,'" said Dr. Louis Aronne of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune |
