BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Do you have a sweet tooth? If you do, it’s fine, as long as you can control it, you should be ok. But what does it mean if you can’t really control your sweet tooth? This is what scientists from the University of Copenhagen asked themselves, as they found a hormone in the liver that causes your sweet tooth.
Attempting to find whatever it is that causes the need or just the urge to eat sweets, researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark somehow reached the liver.
There, the scientists discovered a hormone – fibroblast growth factor 21, or simply FGF21 – that has the ability to suppress the craving for sweets.
After performing a number of tests on rats and monkeys in order to confirm the validity of their findings, as well as to make sure that the hormone doesn’t cause any actual damage when administered, the scientists are excited about the somewhat wide area of possibilities offered by their new discovery.
Here is how the testing went:
First of all, the researchers got three batches of mice. The first ones were regular rodents, offered a choice between a sugar enhanced meal and a regular one. The second batch were also regular mice offered the two choices, but they were administered a dose of the hormone. The last and final batch consisted of genetically modified mice, which were born without FGF21.
As assumed, the mice that were administered the hormone ate much less sugar than the ones without, as much as 7 times less sugar. It was also observed that both the group of mice missing the inhibitor, as well as the control group gained weight at the same rate.
The tests on the monkeys were somewhat different, with only one batch of specimen needed. The monkeys were offered two water supplies, one sweetened, and the other regular.
Then, some of the monkeys were administered a single dose of FGF21. The monkeys administered the dose very quickly lost interest in the sweetened water.
The FGF21 hormone found in the liver works by signaling the hypothalamus that enough sugar had been had.
This led the researchers to start considering applications, especially in the areas of Type 2 diabetes, weight loss, and even possibly alcoholism.
Despite the researchers having very practical, useful, and beneficial ideas, it will take a minimum of 3 to 5 years to actually start seeing any results.
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