One Reason Diets Fail?

New research shows that obese women may have ‘over-expression’ of a gene that programs muscle tissue to store more fat. (Used here, over-expression is a scientific word for over-activity.) This gene is called SCD1, and is clearly a potential target for designing new drugs. More importantly, however, its over-expression may explain why some obese women can’t lose weight by diet alone.

If muscle cells are removed from affected women and grown in a test tube they still have this property of storing more fat than lean cells; in other words, even if the surrounding environment is changed, increased fat storage persists. And ‘infecting’ lean muscle cells with the SCD1 gene causes them to store increased fat amounts.

So far the scientists have found no evidence that exercise, while known to produce changes in muscle metabolism, doesn’t lower the expression of SCD1 in muscle or counteract its effect in other ways.

These findings, if confirmed, may show why obese people can’t lose weight as easily as they are always being told they can – by diet and exercise!

Comments

[UK traveller.]

I saw in London a hoodia spray NoSnax to curb those cravings - good idea?

[Robert Griffith]

UK Traveller:
No Snax is an oral spray containing hoodia, vitamin C, and green tea. I don't know of any well-controlled studies in hiumans that show whether it works or not. Hoodia gordonii is the Prickly Bush found in South Africa's Kalahari Desert. it's reported that the active principle is a substance called P57. A company called Phytopharm claims a patent for this substance. I remain sceptical until I see the results of well-controlled studies. We've been caught too many times before.

See:
No Snax - http://www.zipvit.com/zipvit/nosnax2.pdf
Phytopharm - http://www.phytopharm.co.uk/hoodia_faq.html

[prosseeveva]

I am 57 years old.
For the past 10 years my hair has become a lot thinner. Does anybody know a cure from this?