Posted by kathryn in Health News and Weight loss

Over half the adult population and a quarter of children in Australia are overweight and obese. We’re heading towards serious long-term health issues if solutions are not found to this problem.

An easy way to fix obesity is one of science’s hot topics – here take this pill, or eat this food and suddenly you’ll be able to eat everything you want and you won’t get fat.

On the front page of today’s SMH there’s a report entitled At last – all you can eat and never get fat. Researchers in California have been able to vaccinate rats against the actions of a hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is a recently discovered hormone that seems to be involved in appetite regulation. The study found that rats vaccinated against ghrelin did not gain weight, even when they were allowed to eat freely and the hope is that a similar treatment could be used in humans. As Dr Janda, the study leader says:

“The results demonstrate a proof of the principle that active immunisation against ghrelin can be used to control weight gain and adiposity in mammals”

I think it’s pretty tough being a scientist these days. There isn’t a whole lot of money around for researching, spending is targeted towards end results and if you can make an impact or get some press to advertise your work, then all the better for you.

But to be honest I hate these stories in the press, they make my blood boil. Despite the newspaper headline and what the researchers say, this is not proof that it’s possible to vaccinate people against obesity; if there is going to be a vaccine it’s decades away and yet we have to find ways to deal with the obesity problem here and now .

Levels of the hormone ghrelin rise and fall throughout the day, depending on when and what you’ve eaten. However, ghrelin is just one of a whole range of hormones and biochemicals that interact in complex ways to regulate when we’re hungry and when we’re full. Blocking the action of one will probably not suppress appetite, but instead lead to others dominanting.

Reducing the problem to a hormonal level also ignores the many reasons why people are overweight and obese. It’s not simply about hunger, instead we eat for comfort; because we’re upset; it can be a form of self-harm; a way of satisfying boredom; or simply that people do not know enough to make good food choices.

Reports like these take away individual personal power and responsibility. Yes hormonal and metabolism changes do occur in obese individuals, but for the vast majority a diet that is low in saturated fat and includes low GI carbohydrates, will work. Instead we’re being fed a message that obesity is a disease; we need a vaccine; there’s nothing you can do because it’s your metabolism or a hormonal problem. The more people are fed this message, the less willing they are to do anything about their weight.

This problem is not going away, it ain’t getting better. Science does many fantastic things and has helped us understand so much about our bodies and the way they work. However we can’t wait for science to come up with a vaccine or a pill, because that’s decades away and people are struggling with this problem now. It’s affecting people’s health, wellbeing and happiness, now. It’s increasing the rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, now.

So I wish these reports would be written more realistically and responsibly. Let the scientists do their work and continue to find out more about our bodies, but let’s address the overweight and obesity problem today, we can’t wait for a vaccine.

02 August, 2006