Science Reveals Tough Choice: Overeating Or Overaging

Researchers at Yale Medical School have discovered a distressing dilemma: the same type of molecules that suppress our appetite also make us older faster. A Yale University news release reports that free radicals, whose increase in the hypothalamus of obese mice has been shown to suppress appetite by activating satiety-promoting melanocortin neurons, have also been shown to speed the aging process. The release quotes Tamas Horvath, chair of comparative medicine and director of the Yale Program on Integrative Cell Signaling and Neurobiology of Metabolism, warning that "On one hand, you must have these critical signaling molecules to stop eating. On the other hand, if exposed to them chronically, free radicals damage cells and promote aging." Yikes! What's a person who would like to live for a long time as a thin person to do? Apparently, no one knows. The researchers, who point out that the biggest culprit in the global obesity epidemic is overeating, have turned their attention to the question of whether satiety could be promoted without sustained elevation of free radicals.

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