HOUSTON – Obesity is becoming a growing epidemic in the US. One in three adults in the United States is considered overweight and more than two in five are obese.
Those who are obese have a higher risk for impaired mobility and about 112,000 deaths are attributed to obesity every year. But new research reveals that a drug used to control symptoms of ADHD may be able to combat obesity.
From melting away the fat to helping you lose weight naturally; Americans are spending big bucks on dietary supplements. In fact, they dish out $2.1 billion a year on weight loss pills.
However, Qi Wu, PhD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine says, “Many of those sort of dietary supplements for weight control purpose are not scientifically approved.”
But what if researchers can pinpoint what can make a weightless medication effective?
Professor Qu comments, “We’re trying to figure out the neurological mechanisms like how to control that in normal and obesity kind of patients.”
A team of researchers in Texas discovered a novel brain circuit that could potentially signal when to stop eating. Through experiments, they were able to find that a drug called MPH had the ability to activate and regulate this pathway in the brain.
“This drug has been FDA approved for many years and safely used for ADHD and narcolepsy preventative effects.”, states Professor Wu.
And now, MPH may have the ability to suppress the need to overeat. Tackling obesity one bite at a time. The researchers used mice models to experiment with MPH. They found MPH suppresses feeding and reduces body weight in laboratory mice by strengthening the dopamine-supported novel circuit they discovered.