

Obese Monkeys Lose Weight On Drug That Attacks Blood Supply of Fat Cells - alvivar
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111109143009.htm

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Tichy
Or I don't know, you could just infect yourself with some nasty disease. Sick
people tend to lose weight, too.

Just saying that weight loss in itself is not necessarily saying much.

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rch
This work came from my lab -- most of the research was completed before I
joined. AMA I guess...

Edit: I'm walking out the door at the moment.

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nestlequ1k
I think it's fascinating to imagine a future where scientists finally discover
the "anti-fat" drug. I believe it's bound to happen in our lifetimes. In a
world where only the poor are fat, it would be very interesting to see how
this affects the perception of attractiveness in middle class/upper class
society. Would we adapt to value knowledge above physical appearance?

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mhb
Aren't we living in a world in which only the poor don't have cell phones?

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suivix
Nearly every poor adult has a cell phone. I can't tell if your comment was
sarcastic or not.

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jacques_chester
On the other hand, we're talking about a drug that selectively turns off blood
flow. That it affects fat cells was only visible because subcutaneous fat is
rather obvious.

But what other cells did it affect? It's not well known yet. For all we know
it's stomping on some neurons, or diddling with kidneys, or weakening the left
ventricle of monkey hearts. It's too soon to get excited.

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SoftwareMaven
There is a lot of fat in the brain. I realize it was targeting adipose fat,
but that is still disconcerting until proven otherwise.

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gte910h
The blood brain barrier stops many things, I think they'll just test if this
does.

More troubling is fat in myelin on nerves in the body (It has fat as one of
it's components, and loss of it is bad).

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prodigal_erik
The obvious question is what will happen to the excess blood sugar, when it's
no longer being taken up by fat cells. Would this promote insulin resistance?

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tansey
They address this in the article, noting that treated monkeys used 50% less
insulin.

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rjd
Anyone else wonder where they got obese monkeys from? I guess they feed them
up terrible diets or something...

And because the article had no pictures of obese monkeys, and I was curious to
know what an obese monkey looked like... heres a google search :
[http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=obese+monkey&um=1&i...](http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=obese+monkey&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi)

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spullara
The article states they were spontaneously obese and did not make them obese.
They were fed the same foods as other monkeys, they just exercised less.

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webmonkeyuk
Disappointing, I really wanted to see a picture of before/after monkey mug
shots.

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cletus
Obesity has been an annoyingly difficult problem to "solve". I say "solve"
because in most cases the solution is simply to eat sensibly and not be
sedentary (ignoring people with genuine physiological problems such as thyroid
conditions).

But there is unquestionably a desire for people to be able to eat essentially
what they want and to stay slimmer older. At some point someone will figure
out a pharmaceutical solution to that problem and make a fortune (probably
eclipsing what Viagra did for Pfizer). Current drugs that block appetite
and/or fat absorption tend to have nasty side effects and questionable
utility.

Killing fat cells is certainly a novel approach, especially considering that
relationship between fat cells and weight changes (eg fat cells will increase
in size to a certain point before growing new fat cells), one that may even be
relevant for people who have lost a lot of weight.

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SoftwareMaven
And solving lung cancer is simply a matter of getting people to not smoke.
Having tried and failed for 15 years to just "eat sensibly", I can promise you
there is a whole lot more than just wanting to be able to have your cake and
eat it, too.

And lest you think it's just a will-power thing, I spent years on narcotics
for pain management and had few problems getting off those.

The deck is stacked incredibly against obese people. To wave it off like that
is to vastly underestimate the root causes.

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yummyfajitas
I do think it's a will power thing, or maybe a planning thing. Losing weight
is simple - weigh your food, track the calories, and don't exceed your daily
calorie limits. People often refuse to do this or cheat when they do, but that
doesn't mean it can't be done.

Of course, I don't think there is anything wrong with using technology to have
your cake, eat it too, and not get fat.

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gte910h
It's more complicated than that. Dieting itself saps your willpower (related
to glucose in the brain). Letpin issues plague for at least a year after you
lose the weight (making you overly hungry), making it extremely likely you'll
gain the weight back and more.

Willpower can stop you from originally gaining the weight, but once on, it's a
different story, and one that society doesn't really solve yet in a repeatable
fashion.

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yummyfajitas
_Letpin issues plague for at least a year after you lose the weight (making
you overly hungry), making it extremely likely_ [that you will choose to eat
more food than you need to maintain a healthy bodyweight and] _you'll gain the
weight back and more._

Fixed that for you.

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dsafasdf
Monkeys can have a good life now!

