Drug tries to offset 10,000 years of evolution
July 28 2008 / by futuretalk
Category: Health & Medicine Year: General Rating: 6 Hot
By Dick Pelletier
Squirting a little nasal spray up the nose before
mealtime is helping obese people shed an average of 50 lbs in a
year. Nastech Pharmaceutical Company of Bothell, WA said its
compound, known as PYY, addresses obesity
and other ailments suffered by overweight patients – diabetes, high
blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, and cancer.
Statistics show that 65% of Americans are overweight and nearly half of them are considered obese. In an Associated Press interview, Nastech CEO Steven Quay stated that in tests, PYY reduced patients’ daily calorie intake by 30 percent.
PYY is a naturally occurring hormone that our body sends to the brain 45 minutes after eating to tell us we’re full. This mechanism kept our ancestors from eating too much, but it doesn’t kick in fast enough for people eating today’s high-calorie, high-fat foods. Obesity, researchers say, is a direct result of our inherited genes.
Diet expert S. Boyd Eaton in his book, The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet and Exercise and a Design for Living claims you are what you eat; and more importantly you also are what your ancestors ate. Millions of years of evolution shaped our need for specific nutrients.
Genes control every function of our body, and are essentially the same as those of our early ancestors. Feed those genes well, and they do their job – keeping us healthy. Give those genes nutrients that are unfamiliar or in the wrong ratios, and they speed up aging and lead to disease.
Some 10,000 years ago, our diet changed as we began cultivating crops and livestock and consuming large amounts of grain, milk, and domesticated meats – and we exercised less. Then the industrial revolution changed our diet again. By 1900, refined grains were less nutritional, and we began eating large amounts of refined sugar. Finally, fast-foods have made our diet even worse today, with mostly processed, rather than fresh foods.
But while our diet has changed radically over the last 10,000 years, our genes remain unchanged. We are still designed to feed a hunter-gatherer who gets a ton of exercise every day chasing after his food and running from enemies.
Gene therapies, expected some time between 2015 and 2020, promise to correct this genetic problem caused by nature, but many obese people do not want to wait. They are hoping that Nastech’s new nasal spray can provide a solution now.
Within 20 to 35 minutes after taking a whiff, this new drug moves quickly through the nasal lining and into the bloodstream, sending a message to the brain that our tummy is full. So far the drug has had no negative side effects.
PYY is undergoing clinical trials now, and is expected to be in drug stores by 2009 or 2010. Obesity is the 2nd leading cause of preventable death in America, so this drug offers a great chance for more people to improve their health and get ready to enjoy our “magical future”.
To learn more about PYY, go to http://www.nastech.com/nastech/pyy or to find out if there is a clinical trial in your area for obesity, go to http://www.clinicaltrials.gov and enter obesity in the search box.
Comments welcome.
Comment Thread (3 Responses)
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Always a pleasure reading your posts Dick. This one brings up an important topic. This nasal spray holds many promises for people along with so much scientific research on our eating habits and the plain bad food we eat.
In medicine, there are two ways to cure a problem, one is preventing it before it happens, and the other is fixing the problem once it’s there. I think the focus on this nasal spray is going the wrong way. In Europe, the eating habits are different, people eat smaller meals more often, and a majority of their foods come from a daily walk to the market for fresh produce and actually cooking their meals.
In America, we have the phenomenon of weekly drives to the super market and spending hundreds of dollars on groceries. Plus, the foods we buy tends to be boxed and processed. They come in three dominant flavors, sweet (corn syrups), fatty, and salty. But I understand the convenience of having a ready piping hot meal in 3 minutes from the microwave for a busy, working Americans.
I think the real change lies in the way our country is handling its agriculture. Rather than promoting major corn production and having such a big cattle industry, perhaps the focus should return to localized food markets where fresh produce is grown. A great example of that is the farmers market in Union Square, which is a wonderful market you can buy fresh, nutritious, and healthy foods that hasn’t spent a week in a crate.
Posted by: dvorak July 28, 2008
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Your article was quite informative. I didn’t know anything about the effect of genes that believe we continue a hunter-gatherer society. This simple spray does seem to be part of the “magical future.”
Posted by: jvarden July 28, 2008
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I will be following this drug very closely to see if any side effects become apparent and to see if it actually works. I tend to agree with dvorak that we shouldn’t medicate away too many of our problems when we can change our lifestyles and, as he pointed out, our agricultural towards a more holistic change. Still, this spray is exciting.
Posted by: Mielle Sullivan July 29, 2008
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