The two basic ways to lose weight are to reduce your caloric intake and/or increase your caloric output (through exercise). But at some time in the future, there may be an easier way. Several news agencies (including ABC) report that researchers have found a way to starve fat cells pharmacologically with an experimental drug. The drug, called Adipocide, destroys the small blood vessels within fat, depriving fat cells of nutrients and oxygen (starving them, really) and thereby causing them to shrink and/or die.
So far, Adipotide has only been tested in mice and in monkeys. The company that has the patent on Adipocide plans to apply to the FDA for permission to test the drug in humans sometime soon. But given how long it takes to test a new drug for safety and efficacy, it will be years before Adipocide or any drug like it reaches the market.
Nevertheless, it seems like poetic justice – losing weight by starving your fat cells (the very cells that are causing your weight problems), without the feeling that you are starving yourself by dieting all the time! If it becomes possible, it would change the dieting landscape forever. Let’s wait and see.
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