The Hunger Hormone?
An appetite stimulant produced by the stomach may lead to treatments for obesity and wasting syndromes
By John Travis
Perhaps you skipped breakfast this morning. It’s nearly noon and your stomach is starting to rumble. Or maybe you’re working late and developing a headache because you haven’t had dinner yet. In both of these cases, your body is sending a clear signal: Give me food, right now. Figure out how that signaling works and the world will beat a pathway to your door. Controlling weight, after all, is important for cosmetic and medical reasons, and it’s already a multibillion-dollar business.
“We all know that around mealtime, one tends to get hungry. It’s a very powerful sensation. All of us have had it. Yet the nature of that powerful stimulus is quite vague,” notes David E. Cummings of the University of Washington in Seattle. “There’s no clear consensus on why we get hungry at mealtimes.”