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British Scientists Develop Weight-Loss Chewing Gum

January 15, 2007

• CDC Launches Obesity Website • Modest Exercise Can Reduce Negative Effects of Belly Fat • Keep The Faith and Lose The Weight? • Families That Eat Together Means Kids Eating Better • New Factor in Teen Obesity: Parents • Possible Drug Target Found for Obesity Treatment • Weight Management Requires "Lifelong Commitment" • Obama Urged to Tackle Obesity • 5 Tips for Eating Right in 2009 • "All You Can Eat" A Ticket to Obesity • Sour Economy May Affect Eating Habits • Fast Food Has Fewer Calories Than Traditional Restaurant Meals • Gene May Make You Crave Fast Food • 'Western' Diet Increases Heart Attack Risk Globally • CSPI Raps Nickelodeon Food Ads • New Study Links Inactivity to Desire for More Food • Researchers Suppress "Hunger Hormone" • Parents Can Shape Childrens' Eating Habits • Overweight Doesn't Always Mean Unhealthy • Exercise in a Pill? • Study: 86 Percent of Americans Could Be Obese by 2030 • Americans Becoming Even More Obese, CDC Says • New Guide Lists Calories in Beer, Wine, Cocktails • Experts Fact-Check 'McDonald's Diet' Story • Dementia Linked To Obesity • Study Ties Obesity, Inflammation to Heart Failure • Doctor Offers Antidote To 'Super-Size Me' Diet • Eating Disorders Widespread Among U.S. Women, Survey Finds • Obesity A More Costly Workplace Health Issue Than Smoking • A 'Healthy Weight' May Not Be So Healthy • Skipping Breakfast May Lead to Obesity • Obesity Blamed for Rising Stroke Rate in Women • Spanish Language TV Linked To Latino Child Obesity • Fast Food+Sedentary Lifestyle=Liver Damage • Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Weight Gain • Mississippi May Ban Restaurant Sales to the Obese • Eat Less or Exercise More? • Researchers Find 'Fat-Burner' Compounds • Obesity Linked to Decreased Seatbelt Use • Low-Calorie Food Prices Surge • Italian Restaurants Serve Up the Fat • Viral Infections May Promote Obesity • Brits Find Obesity Deadlier Than Smoking • Healthy Restaurants May Bring Out Bad Eating Habits • 'Bad Carbs' Not the Enemy, Researcher Argues • New Pill May Make Weight Loss Safer --- • Weight Loss News • Childhood Obesity

Losing weight might be as easy as chewing gum, according to British scientists. Researchers at Britain's National Health Service say they have developed a chewing gum that will suppress the appetite of anyone using it.

The researchers say it works by releasing a substance into the body that makes the user feel full. The substance is based on the body's actual hormone that tells the brain to stop eating once a large meal is consumed.

The drug may soon be available in Britain, where rising obesity levels have led to a large increase in a number of related diseases and have threatened to swamp the nation's state-run health service. The drug is designed to be absorbed through the mouth, making chewing gum an ideal delivery vehicle, researchers say.

Laboratory tests so far have been encouraging. Human volunteers who were given the drug reduced their food consumption 15 to 20 percent without feeling hungry. Mice who were administered the drug lost 15 percent of their body weight in one week's time.

Researchers say more testing is needed, but that the drug could be on the market within a few years. They say it could be delivered in a variety of ways besides chewing gum, including as a nasal spray and in injection.

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