Friday, August 22, 2008

Weightloss: Lose Fat Like A Rat!

Being overweight is a pain, and trying to lose flab is an even bigger pain. However, now if scientists are to be believed, then the world could finally be greeted with a pharmaceutical drug that makes you lose wait.

As appears in the news, the U.S. government researchers reported that, an epilepsy drug when tested for use in treating addiction led to the laboratory rats to lose weight. While the fat rats lost 19 percent of their body weight, the normal ones lost 12 to 20 percent in about 40 days, after they were injected with the drug.

Apparently, the drug inhibits craving for food just like it inhibits the craving for the addictive substance in a person. Being a central nervous system drug it acts on the brain's dopamine reward system. Which plays a role in both overeating and drug addiction. “Vigabatrin” is the drug under consideration, which reduces the build up dopamine in the body.

Experts believe that many people who gain weight do so because they overeat in response to the cues they get from the environment, viz. the aroma, etc. The same is the case with drug abusers. During the study, the rats successively lost and gained weight as they were dosed with the drug and then taken off it. The drug helps lose weight because it stops the mechanism by which people abuse drugs and overeat.

Although this is good news, but not without a pitfall, that an overdose of the drug can affect eyesight, and permanently too. At the same time experts from the medical industry opine that it shouldn't happen with the amount of dosage needed to help people lose weight. Still good news!

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