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"Fat-Burning Pill" Inches Closer To Reality
Zothecula writes with news that a fat burning pill may be on the horizon. "Researchers at Harvard University say they have identified two chemical compounds that could replace "bad" fat cells in the human body with healthy fat-burning cells, in what may be the first step toward the development of an effective medical treatment – which could even take the form of a pill – to help control weight gain. Not all fat is created equal. While white fat cells store energy as lipids and contribute to obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the less common brown fat cells pack energy in iron-rich mitochondria, have been shown to lower triglyceride levels and insulin resistance in mice, and appear to be correlated with lower body weight in humans. Brown fat makes up about five percent of the body mass of healthy newborns, helping them keep warm, and is still present in lower quantities in our neck and shoulders as adults, where it helps burn the white fat cells."
why you gotta be racist?
There's a certain subset of people for whom that is just never going to happen, or periods in lives where that's not going to happen. If we can make a magic pill, is that terrible? It's the future, let's take advantage.
Your suggestion is difficult to disagree with, as long as there is no pleasanter solution. However, if a safe and effective "thin pill" can be developed, I (for one) would use it in preference to starving myself and depriving myself of favorite foods.
What are your feelings on birth control? Similar?
it's called "Diet and exercise"
I'm a fat, lazy old f**K whose lost 25 pounds over the last 6 months and kept it off. I hate sweating so I get nifty free apps to monitor what I eat and match that with my activity (or lack thereof) and eat accordingly.
Now I'm less fat, a little less lazy. Sadly, getting older. I need a miracle pill to fix *that*!
That's fine for those who are already healthy. For someone who has made the mistake to allow themselves to become obese it's not so easy. The body resists change and making drastic changes in lifestyle is not a simple thing. If there could be a safe way to assist in reversing obesity, alongside lifestyle changes, it could be a good way to generate results and bolster motivation.
Simplistic and self-righteous comments are not helpful.
No reasonable amount of discomfort and struggle are going to help a person with endocrine issues such as PCOS keeping them fat. Simple self discipline is not the answer for many individuals.
Fiddlesticks! Oh, just eat less, exercise more. But there are several things that are true that are being missed here: people who were obese as children have more fat cells than people who were starved as children. They put on weight more readily, and it comes off with more difficulty. The adult who was overweight as a child can exercise twice as much as an adult who was skinny as a child, and will have a harder time taking off weight. Next, there are people who have a difficult time getting exercise (wheelchair restrictions, COPD, physical injury, arthritis, etc.). Should these people be restricted to 20 calories per day (because they can't exercise), and suffer from nutrient restriction (and associated problems), or do they eat food that has all the nutrition they require, but get stuck with the associated fat (and thus put on weight). Your pat answer "Self discipline, eat less, exercise more" is a pile of hooey. There are people who would be better off exercising more and eating less, but its not a universal truth.
Use self discipline, eat less, eat better, be more active, and accept that discomfort and struggle may be required maintain a healthy body.
Of course, at some point with enough white fat cells, you can't do that efficiently without a system shock approach. Perhaps this pill could be coupled with a healthier lifestyle to reverse morbid obesity. Similar to how SSRIs are recommended as best combined with therapy to treat depression.
Also as others mention, there are times where "being more active" simply isn't possible.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
McCoy: [McCoy, masked and in surgical garb, passes an elderly woman groaning on a gurney in the hallway] What's the matter with you?
Elderly patient: [weakly] Kidney
[pause]
Elderly patient: dialysis.
McCoy: [geniunely surprised] Dialysis?
[musing to himself]
McCoy: What is this, the Dark Ages?
[He turns back to the patient and hands her a large white pill]
McCoy: Here,
[pause]
McCoy: you swallow that, and if you have any more problems, just call me!
[He pats her cheek and leaves]
There is over 1 billion people that have problems with weight. Imagine you have 1 billion clients buying your product every month to the rest of their lives... As we want to be always fit and eat what we want.
The difference is that there are people who can eat what they want and stay thin. Leavings things to evolution is often the safer bet.
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Yes, and Star Trek had FTL transportation, transporters, a post scarcity economy and uniformly attractive women.
It's all very nice for an hour or so a week, but most of us have to deal with this annoying concept of reality. Hell, I'd settle for just one of those.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You should probably send your idea to these researchers. They likely have never heard of it and did not realize they are wasting their time with this study.
Star trek: ;)
Shuttles: Check, at least for a while, before we gave up
USB Key-sized storage: Check
Tablet computers: Check
Sat phones: check
Medical tricorders: there's an X-prize for that, now, right?
Attractive women in uniform: check
Still working on that warp drive, but 3D printers and increasing automation make "post-scarcity" much less of a fantasy than it used to be.
Transporters were a budget-saving hack, but have become standard fare for discussions in Theory of Identity classes in philosophy.
ST:TOS was the closest thing to good SciFi we'll likely ever see.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
and if it can solve a problem without discomfort and struggle why the hell not? Christ, it wasn't long ago that we expected the plague as divine retribution ya know...
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>there is no truer a saying than that of "you are what you eat"
Which is why we should all avoid fruits and nuts. Suckers too. Not to mention vegetables, nobody wants to be a vegetable.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
That is one theory, another approach is to use science on what has proven to work: http://www.nwcr.ws/ A database of those who have successfully lost weight and kept it off and how they did it.
Brown fat development is interesting. Not only it burns fat, but it also produces heat. I always thought it was really dumb to feel cold in winter while we had all that energy stored as fat on our bellies.
Right now the only trick I heard of to develop brown fat was body exposition to cold: it seems the more clothes you put on, the less heat you produce. Now we have some drug, but unfortunately TFA says it messes with inflamatory response, which is not a good news. I think most people will be better with fat rather than with a cancer.
That's the least effective of the lot. Metformin (for applicable cases), T4 (ditto), phentermine/topiramate (practically for everyone) won't give you the runs.
As for pills as a "quick exit", consider those who are too fat to exercise effectively or too poor to eat optimally (good salads and fatty fish are expensive).
Whenever something sounds too good to be true, it usually isn't. I'll put some cash on this being in the Ig-Nobles in a year or two.
Since you like truisms, here's another: conventional wisdom is not at all.
Back to 'Eat less and exercise', everyone. That's probably safer, anyhow.
Depends. If you're so overweight that you risk joint damage or increased wear, or a heart attack from overexertion, a pill to give you a leg-up is a godsend.
Plus, not everybody will lose weight just eating "less" and working out; I know because I'm insulin resistant with a bum thyroid to boot; diet and exercise are only part of the solution.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Seriously, holy shit. I mean, lets science.
Facts: Suddenly, everyone is fat.
Conclusion: Everyone must be a lazy pussy suddenly.
How on earth do otherwise reasonable people do this?
The original paper for this was discussed yesterday on In The Pipeline. The point was raised that the mechanism involved, the JAK-STAT signalling pathway is used quite broadly throughout the body in the control of cell growth and differentiation. There are several Janus Kinase (that's JAK) inhibitors already on the market or in development, and they are powerful immunosuppressants indicated for the treatment of things like rheumatoid arthritis or leukemia. They tend to be the sorts of drugs whose advertisements say stuff like, "Xeljanz may increase your risk of serious infection." Notably, Xeljanz (tofacitinib) popped up in the news a few months ago when it was used to grow hair in a patient with alopecia universalis (who was already taking the drug for an autoimmune disease) and the headlines exclaimed that a cure for baldness was on the horizon. Now, a single drug that burns fat, grows hair, and relieves psorasis sounds like a miracle, but the reality is that's a sign that these compounds act more broadly than is desirable.
As the paper's authors themselves put it:
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
Unfortunately it's not that simple. For some maintaining a reasonable weight means always being hungry. I don't think you realize this (I personally lost 60lb and have to work hard to keep it off) but it can be very miserable always being hungry. Always having that pain in the back of your mind and stomach. For some people it's too much to handle and I personally don't blame those who eat too much if they face this; it's better to enjoy food and be fat if the alternative is being miserable and always in pain. It's like complaining why people with depression just aren't happy; the same applies to why some overweight people don't stop being hungry.
While I agree with most of what you said, the message has a callousness that will likely cause it to fall on deaf ears. Also, to imply that it's easy or simple just to eat less or control your appetite is a bit condescending to those who have a difficult time with this. Most people lack an awareness about their appetite and take a very reactive approach to satisfying their hunger. But the truth of the matter is that sugar and carbohydrates can rule us with the fierceness of a drug or alcohol addiction. I myself have never had a trouble knowing when to stop drinking, but others, due to genetics, can't have just one.
Once I finally started to treat sugar as a drug addiction, I finally started having the success at controlling my weight. I'm currently 60lbs lighter than my peak and have a six pack for the first time in my life at 39. Now that I know how to do it, it's easy, but figuring it out and changing my habits was not.
So while I do sympathize with overweight people who struggle with controlling their appetite, I do find the fatalistic attitude that many overweight people have adopted to be quite annoying, and potentially harmful to others around them.
-- Knowledge shared is power lost. -- Aleister Crowley
I'm glad you have lost 30 lbs. since August. I started around August decreasing calorie intake and increasing exercise, reducing my daily calorie consumption by around 500 calories per day.
Have I lost weight? Not a bit. In fact, my doctor says I gained weight.
Yes, I know some of the gain could be muscle weight, but really it doesn't seem like that is the case. I don't fit clothes any better and overall just still feel the same.
So yes, I wouldn't mind having a pill if it will help people like me who actually try and get no results.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
I've been losing weight steadily for several months now, on a low-carb, high-fat, "paleo" lifestyle which includes light exercise and intermittent fasting. I do not pay any attention to calories whatsoever, I only avoid carbs and eat as much "real food" as I feel like, meaning single-ingredient, natural, fresh-cooked or raw products, as opposed to the processed "edible food-like substances" which occupy most of the shelf space in a modern supermarket.
In terms of caloric intake, my diet is about 75~80% fat, 15~20% protein, and 5~10% carbs.
I eat a lot of the following:
Raw veg: carrot sticks, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, salad.
Cooked veg: spinach, cabbage, sprouts, etc..
Fermented veg: dill pickles, sauerkraut
Dairy: butter, cream, cheese, cream-cheese, sour cream
- Do eggs count as dairy? I eat about two per day.
Nuts: almonds, walnuts, pistachios, etc..
Meat: the fattier the better, especially organ meats
Fish: the fattier the better.
I avoid all processed foods and carbs in particular: Sugar, soft drinks, fruit juice, bread, pasta, starchy veg (eg. potatoes)... and also "somewhat avoid" legumes in general and soy products in particular.
As for exercise, I don't have a regime or program, I just live in a walkable city with great public transpo, so I end up walking a couple miles per day on average. I also started using a stand-up desk last spring. I've been losing a steady 1lb per week for the last half year, and am well on the way to my target by next summer.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
Careful though. After a few cases of spontaneous human combustion scientists admitted their fat burning pills may still need some adjustment.
Rodents aren't that heavy to start with.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
In Star Trek women aren't uniformly attractive; it's simply that the ones who aren't attractive don't get promoted into the "important" ranks who get all the screen-time. Does it still seem so far-fetched?
No, they just get beamed out on a transporter with the biofilter set to "hotness".
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Anyone can eat what they want and maintain a reasonable weight. Either limit the portion or actually do enough physical exercise to burn off the excess calories consumed.
That's like saying any of my classmates could get the same grades I did in science and math classes. All they had to do was study 40 hours per day and write down the correct answers to the exam questions. Never mind that I was able to write down the correct answers while barely studying at all.
Don't assume the fact that you're able to do something means that others can do the same thing. The human brain doesn't work that way.
Well "treat it like an addiction" doesn't necessarily mean stop. If you are addicted to pain medication but, also constantly in pain, do you stop just because you are an addict? No, but perhaps you pay more attention.
Sugar is fine in small amounts. Same is true for most things. Coffee is an addiction too. Its ok to recognize that and still drink it, but it does mean that when 4 pm rolls around, and I look down at the bottom of my cup and think "I could use some joe", I stop myself and don't make another full pot and drink it down so I am awake until 4 am
The problem with sugar is really a quantity thing, and that it has secondary effects on appetite. Which is why you want to manage sugar intake since sugar intake leads to more food cravings. The less hunger you need to resist the easier it is to eat less, and its much easier to manage that up front by managing sugar intake than ignoring hunger.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
A friend of mine is seriously overweight and has heart problems. His doctor told him to lose weight, and he offered to go on any diet plan the doctor suggested, provided the doctor could show better than 5% success after five years. He's not on a diet, because his doctor couldn't come up with one where the chance of long-term failure wasn't completely ineffective at the p0.05 measure.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes