
Scientists Find Brain Hormone That Triggers Fat Burning - baalcat
http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2017/20170127srinivasan.html
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dzhiurgis
Worth adding that finding is in worm brains.

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curiousgal
I no longer get excited over such findings. Over the past 6 or 7 years I can't
think of a single "discovery" that has changed anything medicine-wise.

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true_religion
I would be really shocked to see a hormone treatment to go from initial
research discovery to full human trials in just 7 years, especially for
something that's not an crucial medical issue like fat burning.

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fapjacks
It's not crucial, no, but I can't think of a single other medical issue that
people would be willing to pay boatloads of money to solve. Nobody wants to
lose weight the old fashioned way. You can cut a gut in thirty days, no
kidding. But most people don't have thirty days of willpower. They have plenty
of money they would spend on a lazy alternative, though.

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aruggirello
> Altogether, the newly discovered fat-burning pathway works like this: a
> neural circuit in the brain produces serotonin in response to sensory cues,
> such as food availability. This signals another set of neurons to begin
> producing FLP-7. FLP-7 then activates a receptor in intestinal cells, and
> the intestines begin turning fat into energy.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, what if I look at some juicy foods for hours -
without eating any - would I burn fat this way?

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camelNotation
Based on their description, it seems so, but what if your body builds an
immunity to the effect over time? You could end up gaining weight long term or
experiencing some sort of strange, painful side effects if your body
eventually ceased producing or reacting to the hormone when it should. I
wouldn't risk it until they study it more.

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desireco42
This is awesome finding. I was thinking about similar thing, how, if we didn't
store energy as fat, but instead burn it... what kind of changes that would
entail for us.

I imagined that while too much food would make you sick, in a lot of instances
it would give you a lot of energy and it would be awesome if we could use more
of the energy we collect.

It was just thought experiment, however I did read something later, that makes
this whole idea not as great. Essentially it isn't as simple as burning all
the energy. However increased rate would definitely be welcome.

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duncanawoods
> what kind of changes that would entail for us

Sadly I would suspect a "flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long"
trade-off so premature aging and early death!

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robbiep
Uncoupling proteins (of which there are now 5 known types, up from one when I
was a medical student 4 years ago) increase basal metabolic rate. The effect
of increasing metabolic rate includes a raft of other metabolic changes (some
of which may be because fat is an endocrine tissue by itself and so reducing
visceral fat - which has a 'bad' endocrine profile - leads to a systemic
improvement in 'healthy' endocrine signalling) that globally improve health.

Essentially exercise without exercising, so generally these are good
discoveries - but we as yet haven't harnessed it in a useful (ie drug) form

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mkagenius
One of the ways to get serotonin is by exercising -- so apart from calories
burn (which is typically not that much in a normal work out), the benefits of
serotonin can also help us. Great.

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MrQuincle
* Original article: [http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14237](http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14237)

* This is research on nematodes ([https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Nematode](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Nematode)), an organism that has all its 302 neurons mapped.

* The orthologues of the neuroendocrine peptide FLP-7 and its cognate NPR-22 are the tachykinin / neurokinin family.

* Tachykinin peptides are one of the largest families of neuropeptides [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tachykinin_peptides](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tachykinin_peptides).

* In "Neuropeptides: regulators of physiological processes (Strand), H15" some more background info can be found.

* Kinins form of a group of peptides that cause vasodilation, increase vascular permeability, cause hypotension, and introduce contraction of smooth muscle.

* The tachykinins (tachys, swift) evoke a sharp contraction of the smooth muscle of the gut.

* There are at least three types: Substance P, Neurokinin A, and Neurokinin B. The last two have been only discovered in the early 1980s.

* The genes are also called Tac(hykinin).

* Human tachykinin genes are called TAC1 and TAC3 and are equivalent to Tac1 and Tac2 of the mouse.

* Connection between Tac1 in mouse and adiposity is known [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4398763/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4398763/)

* Or Tachykinins and lipid metabolism in drosophila: [http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(14)0073...](http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247\(14\)00736-0)

* Here is where you can buy tachykinins: [https://www.scbt.com/scbt/browse/chemicals-Nucleotides-Pepti...](https://www.scbt.com/scbt/browse/chemicals-Nucleotides-Peptides-Proteins-Amino-Acids-tachykinins/_/N-13mzg8z)

* Note. As layman (I've only studied regulatory networks for the purpose of evo-devo algorithms) it is likely that diversification of neuropeptide function across the peripheral system (different functionality in heart vessels vs intestines e.g.) means that it is also likely that the evolutionary function has not been preserved.

* Note. Why do tachykinins have the right structure to play a role in this pathway?

* The study is still interesting because tachykinins are an "evolutionary preserved" family of peptide neurotransmitters.

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return0
when do we expect the commoditization of six-packs

