Neurological Correlates

If resting state energy metabolism turns off once you start endurance exercise, then better to turn it off than speed it up for weight loss.

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The new fountain of youth may be an empty cupboard.
Starve a little and you’ll live longer, is the new conventional wisdom –when you restrict calories, lots of good things happen to prevent aging.
Looking back at the people posting on the lorcaserin post who are on the trial and who don’t feel like eating — isn’t [...]

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How could I have missed this? Here’s a brief review of Portfolio.com May 2008 “neurotech” articles and graphics.

Starting with the graphic (click to go to the article) - it’s pretty telling: the two “neurotech” areas most associated with “character flaws” are the lowest revenue business areas — obesity and addition. (Graphic is modified to [...]

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So far, lorcaserin is the only weight loss drug in the near future that makes commercial sense to me, not to say it is the most wonderful drug in the world and the science is, imo, sort of a yawner.
I keep an eye out for better weight loss drugs on the horizon — so here’s [...]

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Ok, this is strictly a pharma-geek post, but this is why there is science: combining chemistry, protein structure, medicine, computer science, and third world social sciences, scientists from Cleveland and Chicago made a mini-revolution: uber-insulin that doesn’t need refrigeration. How great is that?

Maybe a little back story: One of my side projects is working with [...]

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Is this a perfect drug? No. From an industry perspective, this is the perfect storm: you have the market data already. You know how big the market is. You know pretty much about any other side effects (except the heart binding, which is eliminated). You know market acceptability. You know safety and efficacy — if the heart receptor binding is eliminated.. . . And, you know mode of action, pretty much — that’s better than 90% of the drugs out there that work, but we have no idea why. The FDA and medical establishment still seems to think that body fat deposition is predominantly a matter of lifestyle choice — and so they are “eat less exercise more” focused rather than on getting this anti-obesity med throught the clinic and reversing the diabetes tidal wave.

And, you have virtually no competition in probably the largest therapeutic area ever (but who knows what’s coming up on the heels of lorcaserin.)

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The stereotype of overeating Americans is true. Americans stop eating meals based on external cues from others. The French stop eating when they themselves want to. Here’s from Wansink, Brian, Payne, Collin R., Chandon, Pierre, Internal and External Cues of Meal Cessation: The French Paradox Redux?, Obesity 2007 15: 2920-2924:

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Sardinia!

Sardinia, Satellite Photo (Wikipedia, Sardinia entry)

Sardinia, a beautiful gem of an island off the coast of Italy, known for gorgeous beaches, glamorous holidays, $2M birthday parties, and lately known for studying the genetics of its inhabitants. The population is considered an isolated one, like Icelandic populations, and therefore presumably more genetically homogeneous than [...]

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