Drug Appears To Work For Weight-Loss In U-M Study

Obese mice were given the drug Amlexanox lost weight. (credit: University of Michigan)

ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - Could a drug used to treat canker sores be a miracle weight-loss solution? Researchers at University of Michigan are working to find out.

Back in February, U-M researchers discovered that mice given the prescription drug, Amlexanox, lost weight without diet or exercise.

Now, Dr. Elif Oral, an associate professor of internal medicine at U-M’s Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes (MEND) division, is beginning the first human study to determine whether the drug will have the same effect in people.

“The weight loss together in improved glucose metabolism makes this even more interesting, you know, and more exciting,” Oral told WWJ Health Reporter Sean Lee. “We’re going to start out by targeting the diabetic population because that’s the population that needs more immediate help.”

The study is small, enrolling just 10 obese people with Type 2 diabetes. If that goes well, the next study will enroll more people.

The problem is inactivity and overeating.

Sorry, but no. If that were true, diet and exercise would succeed, but the long term success rate of diet and exercise only rarely exceeds 5%.

Obesity is a most commonly a symptom of disregulated fat metabolism. And lethargy and hunger are also symptoms of a disregulated fat metabolism.

If you fix your fat metabolism, you will eat less because you won't be hungry all the time, and you will exercise more, because you won't be tired all the time, and you will lose weight. But it won't be because of the diet and exercise - it will be because you addressed the actual problem.

I’ve lost exactly 40 pounds since the first of the year ( started at 222 and now I am 182 ).

In March, 2012, I weighed in at 294 pounds - and determined that I was going to lose weight. So I did what I had always done - I tried to eat less and to exercise more.

Exercise was difficult for me - I couldn't run, and I couldn't walk more than 1/4 mile before having to stop and rest due to back pain. But I pushed through, and for the next three months I was hungry and hurting and miserable.

And by June, I was down to 290 pounds.

That's when I read Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories", and became open to the realization that the advice I had been following, to limited success, might not be all that good.

So I started a strict low-carb diet, and stopped exercising, as is generally advised for the first couple of weeks of low-carb.

The results were immediate and dramatic. After two weeks, without exercise, and before I'd lost much weight, I was out walking the dog, and suddenly realized that I'd walked more than five miles, without back pain. Which I hadn't been able to do in fifteen years.

I had more energy, I slept better. My sleep apnea and acid reflux disappeared. My blood pressure normalized, and I came off my blood pressure meds.

Exercise became easy - and productive. I was no longer driving myself and seeing no results.

And the weight came off steadily.

I started on June 11, at 289 pounds. By July 1 I was at 280, 270 by August 1, 260 by September 1. By January 1, 2013, I was down to 220.

Since then I've been engaged in a weight training program. I've seen considerable continuing fat loss, but my weight has been more steady. As of this morning I'm down to 216. (I'm 6'1", and I've put on a fair amount of muscle. My current ideal weight is 195-205 pounds - which means I've yet got a bit to go, but I'm getting close.)

And through this all I've never gone hungry. I've eaten whenever I felt the need, as much as I felt the need. I've never consciously restricted calories. And I've completely given up on the hours of endless cardio exercise. I'm exercising intensely, but for less than an hour, two or three times a week. And I'm seeing results that I never had, back before I adopted low carb.

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