A chewing gum for weight loss is invented
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Most people understand that losing weight requires a change in attitude towards the diet, diet and physical activity. But what if you can easily lose weight with a simple chewing gum? The team of scientists led by chemist Robert Doyle from Syracuse University tried to answer this question.
In a new groundbreaking study, Doyle's team demonstrated for the first time that a hormone that helps people feel full after eating can be taken into the bloodstream by oral route.
The human hormone PYY is part of a chemical system that regulates appetite and energy metabolism. When people eat, PYY enters the bloodstream. The amount of PYY that is released increases with the number of calories that are consumed. Past research has shown that people who are obese have lower PYY concentrations in the blood, both during fasting and after eating, than people who are not obese. In addition, intravenous administration of PYY to obese volunteers and people without obesity led to an increase in the level of the hormone in the blood and a decrease in the amount of calories consumed in both groups.
"PYY is a hormone that suppresses appetite," Doyle says. "But, when ingested, the hormone breaks down in the stomach, and the part that does not collapse will hardly penetrate the blood through the intestine."
Scientists have to find a way to protect PYY so that it can pass through the digestive system unharmed.
Several years ago, Doyle developed a way to use vitamin B12 as a means for oral administration of the hormone insulin. B12 easily passes through the digestive system, transporting insulin or other substances into the bloodstream. Similarly, scientists have added the hormone PYY to the vitamin B12 system.
"The first phase of this study will show that we were able to transport clinically significant quantities of PYY into the blood," Doyle says.
