Tackling the obesity epidemic by treating sugar addiction like drug abuse
https://drugstorenewsce.com/editorial-news-item/10/9198
With obesity rates on the rise worldwide and excess sugar consumption considered a direct contributor, the search has been on for treatments to reverse the trend. Now a world-first study led by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) may have an answer.
Neuroscientist Professor Selena Bartlett from QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation said the study, which has just been published by international research journal PLOS ONE, shows drugs used to treat nicotine addiction could be used to treat sugar addiction in animals.
The publication coincides with another paper by the team — Prolonged Consumption of Sucrose in a Binge-Like Manner, Alters the Morphology of Medium Spiny Neurons in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell — being published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. It shows that long chronic sugar intake can cause eating disorders and affect behavior.
“The latest World Health Organization figures tell us 1.9 billion people worldwide are overweight, with 600 million considered obese,” said Professor Bartlett who is based at the Translational Research Institute.
Excess sugar consumption has been proven to contribute directly to weight gain. It has also been shown to repeatedly elevate dopamine levels, which control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers in a way that is similar to many drugs of abuse including tobacco, cocaine and morphine. After long-term consumption, this leads to the opposite, a reduction in dopamine levels. This leads to higher consumption of sugar to get the same level of reward.
“We have also found that as well as an increased risk of weight gain, animals that maintain high sugar consumption and binge eating into adulthood may also face neurological and psychiatric consequences affecting mood and motivation,” added Bartlett.
The study found that drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as varenicline — a prescription medication trading as Champix, which treats nicotine addiction — can work the same way when it comes to sugar cravings.
PhD researcher Masroor Shariff said the study also put artificial sweeteners under the spotlight.
“Interestingly, our study also found that artificial sweeteners such as saccharin could produce effects similar to those we obtained with table sugar, highlighting the importance of reevaluating our relationship with sweetened food per se,” said Shariff.
Professor Bartlett said varenicline acted as a neuronal nicotinic receptor modulator (nAChR) and similar results were observed with other such drugs, including mecamylamine and cytisine.
“Like other drugs of abuse, withdrawal from chronic sucrose exposure can result in an imbalance in dopamine levels and be as difficult as going ‘cold turkey’ from them,” she said. “Further studies are required but our results do suggest that current FDA-approved nAChR drugs may represent a novel new treatment strategy to tackle the obesity epidemic.”
Filed under: General Problems
“Like other drugs of abuse, withdrawal from chronic sucrose exposure can result in an imbalance in dopamine levels and be as difficult as going ‘cold turkey’ from them,”
OMG lmao … I wonder what’s going to be next on their list
1984 is here, alive and well.
This is what is happening out here! Now they want to limit sugar intake because the government knows what’s best for you?! I guess the day is coming where you have no rights, including what you eat, how much you sleep and probably soon what you are allowed to think or say (oh wait corporations and government are already monitoring that) It’s getting just plain stupid!
Coming soon to the next DSM-VI near you…..Sugar Use Disorder…LOL…I believe the problem is the high fructose corn syrup, not the actual cane sugar and the artificial sweetners. Salt is already targeted in the nanny state/city of New York….face it everything you eat, behaviors you do and drink is BAD for you…red meat, eggs, salt, sugar, caffiene, alcohol, water, food in general, gambing, sex, dangerous activities (adrenaline junkies) and even the drugs you take for the illnesses you get….you just can’t win……but yes, anything can become addictive and that’s what the alphabet soup people don’t get….SMDH
My thoughts exactly!! How about instead of going after us poor “Addicts”, they go after the food companies that put things in food that make them more addictive?! How about making them use HONEST & REALISTIC labels & TRUTHFUL advertising?! Maybe stop Monsanto from poisoning us & meat co. that are overdosing us on antibiotics that will lead to a plague of biblical proportions in the very near future; & hormones that are causing girls to start developing sexually as young as 2-3yrs. old!! (no wonder teen pregnancy is at an all time high, when you have girls starting periods & in c-cups by the time they are in 3rd grade!!!) Last but not least, give tax breaks & incentives to local growers, so that EVERYONE could afford to buy healthy foods that at this time, is too expensive for a lot of families, leaving them nowhere to turn, but junk food!!
If they would just do these SIMPLE things & allow us to make INFORMED choices (as it is OUR right & FREEDOM to do so!) then you would see a huge drop in obesity!
Ahh I almost forgot, add bacon to that list of “deadly foods” as apparently bacon, is killing us w/ cancer! Bacon has to be the most AWESOME food EVER invented & therefor is worth the risk of “bacon cancer”!! In fact it is so loved that even if it had the risk of sudden death, many would still chance it!!LOL!!
“Coming soon to the next DSM-VI near you…..Sugar Use Disorder…LOL”
*snort* lolol
In a way I enjoy this as an anecdotal piece because it proves anything can be addictive but this has gone TOO far and invaded what people can put into their bodies of their own free will and sounds like an excuse to push more drugs and label more people with “mental disorders.”