Word: weightness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...past 2 million or 3 million years of human history are any guide, obesity is our unfortunate but inevitable fate. That's not to say there's any special secret to weight control. All it takes, as we've heard over and over, is a sensible diet and plenty of exercise...
...knowing and doing are two very different things, as hundreds of thousands of lapsed weight watchers have learned to their despair. The trouble, according to one theory, is that our best intentions about weight control go up against several million years of human evolution. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors literally didn't know where their next meal was coming from. So evolution favored those who craved energy-rich, fatty foods--and whose metabolism stored excess calories against times of famine. Love handles, potbellies, thick thighs are all part of Mother Nature's grand design...
...seem to work in humans. Researchers are still trying to figure out why not--and how to get around the problem. Another natural substance, called pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), seems to signal that it's time to stop eating. Mice treated with POMC boosters shed 40% of their excess body weight in just two weeks. Again, it's not clear that this will work in humans, but it's conceivable that POMC therapy--perhaps in shots--could someday be standard...
What's becoming clear to scientists in the obesity business is that the body's energy-processing system involves not one or two but a maze of metabolic pathways. POMC, leptin and brown fat cells are part of the story. But nerve cells have also been implicated in weight regulation, and it's not clear how these different pathways relate to one another. "Not a month goes by," says Dr. Eric Ravussin, director of endocrine research at Eli Lilly, "without publication of a new pathway that regulates feeding behavior, giving us new potential targets...
Untangling this metabolic mess will probably take decades. But given the immense profits waiting for whoever can invent a safe, effective weight-control substance, drug companies aren't waiting. With the clues they have in hand, pharmaceutical firms are now investigating about 60 compounds, most of them based on some of the 130 genes that have so far been implicated in weight control...