Dear DOCTOR Owen:

When can we expect some real breakthrough in obesity treatment? I have been fat forever. My whole family is fat. I can lose weight, but it really is a struggle. I am patient, but seem to eat much less than my friends and gain twice as much. How long will I have to wait?

Miracle Minny

Dear “Minny”:

You’ll be waiting awhile. However, the science of obesity research has “exploded” (no pun) over the last decade and many great advances are occurring. One of them is the ability of medical science to “knock out,” or change, certain chromosomes in research animals to find the hormones and chemical systems that govern food intake or energy expenditure.

Quite by accident, one of several new chemicals manufactured in the brain has been discovered, which affects obesity and other physical features. While looking to discover something about fetal development, researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, changed a chromosome that they thought would affect the brain and nervous system development. But what they got was a mouse that became very obese, had different-colored pigmentation and fur, and had no adrenal gland development.

The researchers discovered that a chemical called proopiomelanocortin (POMC) was not produced. This chemical deficiency leads to obesity and pigment changes. They found that the animals ate more and stored fat more easily—a sure-fire way to get fat. By using various other hormones and chemicals to “fool” their brains, the animals lost weight by decreasing their food intake and became more active.

POMC was discovered a decade ago. Like the “fat hormone” leptin, also discovered about the same time, these new brain chemicals are shedding light on the extremely complicated mechanisms involved in balancing calories in an environment of unlimited food. These chemicals are helping medical science confirm that obesity is not a character flaw, a lack of will, or a moral failure. More importantly, they are opening research doors into possible treatment alternatives in the future.

Research often makes discoveries of great magnitude quite by accident. It is the quest for new knowledge and understanding that is important. Many people do not realize how money spent on seemingly nonsensical ideas can translate into a better way of life for many on the planet. But if you do not like to have your taxpayer dollars spent on such nonsense, remember that the food industry outspends the obesity research community by $1 million to one. For every dollar spent on obesity research, food retailers spend a million trying to fatten us up!

Hang in there and stay in the hunt. Even if genetically disadvantaged, you can still lose weight and keep it off. It may take more effort and skill than what your friends experience, but those are “the breaks.” The longer you live healthy, the better chance you will have to live longer healthy. It will get easier.

Give, and encourage others to give, to research, which pays many more dividends than you will ever know. The American Obesity Association (AOA) is a non-profit group that can give you leads for focused donations. You can contact the AOA at:

American Obesity Association
1250 24th Street, NW
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20037

1-800-98-OBESE (1-800-986-2373) or 202-776-7711

202-776-7712 (fax)

Membership:
membership@obesity.org

Knowledge is cumulative and multiplies with time. Ignorance stays the same.