Tony Deyal WHOEVER SAID life has its ups and downs was referring more to my weight than my fate. I am a yo-yo or hi-lo dieter, constantly up and down the food and supermarket chains. If I count the amount of weight I have lost in my life, I would look like Harry Potter under an invisibility cloak, or vanish completely like the truckload of new Harry Potter books. Unfortunately, I have gained a couple hundred pounds more than I have lost and increasingly look like Hagrid with enough ugly fat to resemble Hogwarts.
I have always wondered why I can lose weight quickly and then regain it even faster. Up to now I've blamed it on the evil one whose name everyone is scared to utter. However, science has come to my rescue and told me that it is neither wizardry nor gluttony. A hormone named 'Ghrelin' and not the devil or his food cake makes me do it.
For the scientifically uninformed, a hormone is not a long drawn-out cry of pleasure from a lady of easy virtue. It has nothing to do with taking anyone's genes off. It is a chemical substance produced in an endocrine gland and transported in the blood to a certain tissue on which it exerts a specific influence.
GHRELIN'S ACTION ON THE BRAIN
According to Denise Grady of the New York Times news service, "Ghrelin is one of a complex array of natural substances that carry messages between the brain and the digestive system. Secreted by specialised cells in the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine, Ghrelin acts on the brain. It is the first natural appetite stimulant found to be made outside the brain." While my Indian ancestry may have something to do with my pattern of weight loss, it is interesting that Ghrelin, although discovered by Japanese researchers in 1995, is based on a Hindi word 'ghre' meaning 'grow'. Based on the evidence my surname should have been 'Ghreyal' instead of 'Deyal'.
Ghrelin stimulates the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. It makes you hungry, slows down your metabolism and reduces your body's ability to burn fat. The more you diet, the higher your levels of ghrelin rise. People who got ghrelin injections ate about a third more than they would normally eat. Some people who lost an average of 17 per cent of their body weight found that their ghrelin output rose about 25 per cent so that after they lost the weight, their ghrelin levels were almost as high as when they started the diet programme.
SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST
It seems that in our hunting and gathering days as a Stone Age species, we had periods of feasting followed by famine. Fasting was compulsory and not a choice. The people with the most fat survived. Evolution ensured that the children and children's children of the original Fred Flinstones and Barney Rubbles would have big Bam-Bams and other progeny. That's the bedrock issue.
Is there a way out? One option is based on the fact that ghrelin is produced in our stomachs and not our brains. It means that science can develop blockers. In fact, right now the pharmaceutical companies are racing to see which one would be first in the market with a ghrelin blocker.
Another option is via the 'leptin' route. Discovered in 1995, Leptin is a hormone which suppresses appetite. It moves around the fat stored in your body and, when your fat cells are full, tells you to stop eating. Of course, many of us stubbornly refuse to listen. Most overweight people are resistant to leptin. Much to the annoyance of some of our politicians on both sides of the increasing racial divide, perhaps we might all have Indian ancestry and prefer ghrelin because it speaks our language.
AN ALTERNATIVE
There is another option that is looking as good as we would all like to look. A team led by Dr. David Bloom, a Professor of Endocrinology at the Imperial College School of Medicine, London, found that people who were given a very small dose of the hormone PYY (Peptide YY3-36) and offered a buffet lunch two hours later, consumed about 33 per cent fewer calories than they did when they were not taking the hormone. They reported feeling full, but not overstuffed or ill. The effects lasted about 12 hours, and when the hormone wore off, the people had no tendency to overeat to make up for the calories they had missed. While PYY is the good news, the bad news is that it will be another 10 years at least before it becomes available as an injection or tablet.
There is a fourth route that is surgical instead of medical. It is gastric bypass surgery or stomach stapling. In gastric bypass, surgeons sew off all but a tiny pocket at the top of the stomach. One of the interesting outcomes is a reduction in ghrelin levels. People who have this type of surgery generally continue to lose weight.
CAN'T BOTHER WITH IT
I plan to bypass the bypass or to pass on it. There are still too many issues and malpractice suits surrounding it. I will stick to the tried, although not entirely true. According to the researchers, the combination of diet and exercise, done regularly, can help you to lose about 20 per cent of body weight. You can maintain the weight loss if you change your eating and exercise habits, and create a supportive environment for your behaviour and lifestyle changes. This is easier said than done. Under stress, we all revert to our comfort foods, behaviours and zones. I know, because I am seeing my exercise equipment as I write, and cannot, and will not, move a muscle even if I got paid to exercise it.
There are some ways that have successfully helped people like me. One of these is TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly). Next week I will write about it. In the meantime, I will exercise to chutney music to keep the Grhelin happy.
Tony Deyal was last seen trying to persuade his ghrelin to go back to India so he and his leptin could be alone at last.
