Obesity Essay Research Paper America has become

Obesity Essay, Research Paper

America has become a society obsessed with appearance, especially weight. We are conditioned

at a young age to believe the only way to be normal is to be thin. This norm is projected to millions of

Americans each day through television, magazines, billboards and every other form of media and

advertising. How are people to know acceptance and happiness with themselves and others when

our culture propagates what the perfect body should be.

It is the search for the elusive, perfect body that has created a thirty-three billion dollars a year

weight loss industry. Yet few reduce their body fat and even fewer maintain their weight loss beyond

two to three years. This leads to yo-yo dieting and increased low self-esteem of people constantly

struggling to become what they see as a normal member of society.

A problem that lies within this problem, is the chronically obese person. Obesity is when one’s body

wieght is 25-30% above normal. While overweight is 20-30 pounds over normal. Most people,

including health care providers see the problem with obesity as eating too much and exercising too

little. But in truth, for many obese people the problem lies with genetic predisposition, metabolic

problems, binge eating or sometimes all. These factors make dieting virtually impossible because

these problems are not ones that can be solved by simply cutting calories. Especially the problem of

binge eating.

Compulsive “binge” eating in the obese is not caused by just wanting to eat. The want to eat is

caused by looking for a sense of security. A sense of security wanted because there are poor or no

coping skills for stress or depression and low self-esteem. Therefore, when a compulsive overeater

or binge eater diet, the diet is doomed to fail because the weight returns when the person resumes

normal eating. Thus creating an even greater depression.

Now many obese people have medical research to turn to as to why the weight they lost usually

comes back. Recent research has strongly backed the set-point theory, which says that when an

individual loses weight, the body’s metabolic rate adjusts in order to return to the baseline weight.

Research with animals has revealed a protein called leptin. Leptin circulates in the blood and

signals the set point mechanism in the brain, which tells how much fat is present in the body. The

protein is believed to be produced by an obesity gene called ob. When leptin is injected into rodents,

it lessened appetite and increased calories being burned. However, leptin is still very much in early

experimental stages, because even though it may gauge how much fat you have it does not at this

point tell how much you want.

Another recent breakthrough was the discovery of unocortin. Unocortin appears to suppress

appetite when the body is under severe stress. It is a cousin of the brain chemical that generates the

body’s “fight or flight” response. Unocortin was discovered at the Salk Institute, when a researcher

was studying a neuropeptide which activates body stress reactors. He noticed receptors in parts of

the brain where the chemical did not exist. However, it may be a long time before unocortin is

actually a consumer drug. At this time, the only way unocortin works is to be directly injected into the

brain. A company called Neurocin Biosciences, is already researching the brain receptor unocortin

locks onto to work.

For now, the serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs are the only diet drugs being used in the U.S.

These drugs work by affecting eating behavior. Eating behavior is the result of a mixture of

neurotransmitters. The link between serotonin and eating disorders was discovered in the early

1980’s. The serotonin inhibitors include Lovan, Redux and phen-fen (Phentermine and Fenfluramine).

Phen-fen is the drug combination currently recieving so much attention. Phentermine is similar to

an amphetamine and it works to increase metabolic rate. Fenfluramine(brand name Pondimin) in-

creases the serotonin level, which decreases appetite. However, neither drug works alone. They

only have optimum effect together.

Phen-fen is how I became interested in the research of new obesity drugs. I first learned of

phen-fen in June. The article I read in the Knoxville paper about people who had taken the medicine,

showed it to be what I and many others had been waiting for. I finally believed my real chance to

lose weight had arrived. So with real anticipation, I made the two and half hour drive to Monticello,

Kentucky. My first month on the medicine was great, I lost fourteen pounds and completely lost any

desire to eat. The compulsion I normally felt late at night to snack was gone. My problem with

phen-fen began the second month, when I started experiencing depression. One of the possible

side effects mentioned was depression in people who had suffered clinical depression or were prone

to depression. I knew this when I started the

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