Drug from Chili Peppers Can help in Weight Loss

Obesity is a major health problem which is followed by many metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis and heart diseases. According to the statistics,1 out of 3 people is overweight or suffering from obesity worldwide. These people are suggested with Exercise and diet to control their weight but most people find it difficult to maintain in the long term and rebound weight gain usually occurs.

A new study led by the researchers from the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy has found a novel drug which is based on the compound that gives chili peppers their spicy burn i.e capsaicin which helps in long-term weight loss and improved metabolic health in mice eating a high-fat diet.

Researchers prepared a drug, Metabocin which functions to capsaicin throughout the day which leads to anti-obesity effect without producing inflammation or adverse side effects.

“We observed marked improvements in blood sugar and cholesterol levels, insulin response, and symptoms of a fatty liver disease,” reported Dr. Baskaran Thyagarajan, the lead investigator, describing how Metabocin reversed many damaging effects of the high-fat diet. He presented the results this week at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, the leading international conference of experts on food and fluid intake.

When the Metabocin is ingested orally it activates the targets receptors present in the number of the fat cell. These receptors are called TRPV1((transient receptor potential vanilloid subfamily 1). These receptors when activated stimulates the white fat cells not to store energy instead use them as a energy which in turn causes weight loss.

After this study, researchers had a doubt that whether the drug remains effective when used long-term, and whether adverse effects would outweigh its benefits.

To confirm their theory they experimented with drug in mice for 8 months and found that maintaining the weight loss was maintained and were no evidence of safety problems. Additional ongoing experiments will see how long weight loss can be maintained.

“It proved safe and was well tolerated by the mice,” Thyagarajan concluded. “Developing Metabocin as a potent anti-obesity treatment shows promise as part of a robust strategy for helping people struggling with obesity.”

With this study in mind, many people will think that eating spices can help in losing weight but it is wrong because capsaicin in most of the spicy food is not well absorbed into the body so it would not produce these effects. This was the reason that researchers transformed the capsaicin into absorbing forms i.e. Metabocin having proper absorption and sustained release.

The next step of The Wyoming researchers is to explore medical options that can stand against obesity and its metabolic impacts and are effective in the long term to counter obesity and these methods can support people looking for maintaining a healthier weight.