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A chewing gum for weight loss has been invented.
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Most people understand that losing weight requires changing your attitude to your diet, eating habits, and physical activity. But what if you could lose weight easily with a simple piece of chewing gum? This is the question that a team of scientists led by chemist Robert Doyle from Syracuse University tried to answer.
In a groundbreaking new study, Doyle's team has demonstrated for the first time that a hormone that helps people feel full after eating can be delivered into the bloodstream orally.
The human hormone PYY is part of a chemical system that regulates appetite and energy metabolism. When people eat, PYY is released into the bloodstream. The amount of PYY that is released increases with the number of calories consumed. Previous studies have shown that obese people have lower blood PYY concentrations, both during fasting and after eating, than non-obese people. Additionally, intravenous administration of PYY to obese and non-obese volunteers resulted in increased blood hormone levels and decreased calorie intake in both groups.
"PYY is an appetite suppressant hormone," says Doyle. "But when taken orally, the hormone is broken down in the stomach, and the part that isn't broken down has a hard time getting into the bloodstream through the intestines."
Scientists now need to find a way to protect PYY so it can pass through the digestive system unharmed.
Several years ago, Doyle developed a way to use vitamin B12 as an oral delivery system for the hormone insulin. B12 passes easily through the digestive system, transporting insulin or other substances into the bloodstream. In the same way, scientists attached the hormone PYY to the vitamin B12 system.
"The first stage of this study will be to show whether we can transport clinically significant amounts of PYY into the blood," says Doyle.