Letter from Jess Meyers

I scrounged through the recycle bin until I found last month's Reader's
Digest (July) and re-read the article on "Beating the Urge to Eat" by Peter
Jaret. Several interesting items caught my attention.

1. A hormone called leptin signals the brain to supress appetite - "Hey,
Dude, quit eating. You're full!".

2. 85 to 90 percent of obese people DO NOT have a deficiency of leptin.
Their bodies have become resistant to its effects. This is much like Type II
diabetes where the body has plenty of insulin but is insulin resistant.

3. An excess of triglycerides may contribute to leptin resistance.

4. An enzyme called SCD-1 - controlled by leptin - is used by the body to
create fat cells. Delete the gene that makes SCD-1 (in mice) and they can
pig out on Twinkies and beer without gaining weight.

5. Another culprit that may make you chubby is a virus, AD-36.

6. Base level activity can vary up to 500 calories/day. Notice how some
people constantly twitch? Low or high metabolism is hereditary, but they're
working on metabolism boosting substances.

The article closes with, "Patients used to blame being overweight on glands
and hormones, and we doctors would say, 'It's not hormones, it's calories,'
" says Banks. "Now we know hormones *are* involved." . . ."People can diet
and lose 10 or 15 pounds. But real obesity isn't a willpower problem,. It's
a medical problem."

Environment, heredity, hormones, cholesterols, viruses - all may play a
part. There is no simple answer to weight control. Sure, you can force a
human to starve to death, but that is not an answer. We need a way for
people to control weight that is workable. I'm currently fighting the fat
with the South Beach diet. It's probably no better or worse than Atkins,
Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. But any time you starting trying to control
what, and how much you eat, it's bound to make a difference. I'm down
fifteen pounds in a month. I might gain it back and then again I might lose
fifteen more. But *right now* I am fifteen pounds less. My feet thank me.

Rich S.