Scientists at
people eat more and gain weight when under stress and hamsters are helping to yield the answers. Their hope is to unravel the complex factors that lead people to eat when they are under stress and then use the information to eventually block appetites under this common scenario. Check it out at Science Daily.
Researchers will also want to know if drugs can block stress-induced obesity, for example, by blocking the release of the stress hormone, corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF), or by blocking the body's CRF receptors, Bartness said. CRF, also sometimes referred to as corticotrophin releasing hormone, produces the body's "fight or flight" response under stress and helps kick off a cascade of physiological responses.
"There are a whole suite of physiological responses that occur as a result of stress," Dr. TJ Bartness said. It will take time to unravel all these physiological responses and to use that knowledge to block stress-induced obesity. It may even turn out that the reactions are too complex to easily block, he said. I thought it was interesting that mice and rats eat more and gain weight under stress, just as humans do, while hamsters do not... It doesn't take rocket science to see why hamsters, rather than humans or rats were used in this study….
In the meantime ... remind me of hamster ways next time hunger hammers me ….
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