Researchers discover eating brake in the brain

New study: Gene keeps slim

07/20/2013

Unfortunately, with increasing age, the weight on the scales often increases. Researchers now think they have found another reason for this. Thus, nerve cells in the brain that control sexuality could also affect body weight. Fertility thus keeps you slim. That also applies to men.

Fertility keeps you slim
Why many post-menopausal women may be due to neurons in the brain that control sexuality. These cells could also affect body weight, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, Hessen, discovered. This mechanism, found in the new study, led fertility to be slim. Even in men over 50, the sinking libido could lead to more kilos on the scales, but with them in a creeping process.

Limited by extreme overweight
So far, it has been known that fertility is limited by extreme overweight. The new discovery of the Max Planck scientists, which is based on tests on mice, could point out that this principle applies the other way around: the body weight increases when fertility wears off. The researchers published their findings in the journal „Journal of Neuroscience. "According to spokesman Matthias Heil, this result is transferable to humans, that it is essentially about a gene that he also carries human.

Gen provides sexual desire
The researchers switched off the gene NSCL-2 in a type of brain cells from mice for their experiments. The gene, which stimulates many nerve cells to certain tasks, ensures at the beginning of puberty for the maturation of the sexual organs and for sexual desire. The scientists found that the gene in interaction with another type of nerve cells also controls the metabolic activity. The excited nerve cells, for example, provide the brain with information about available fat reserves and thus regulate the feeling of hunger.

Even men affected
This gene is believed to be naturally eliminated in the human aging process. „It is no longer activated, maybe this type of nerve cells is no longer available, "said Heil, so that after menopause, women may no longer have a natural sense of when to stop eating, as well as men of advanced age to that missing one „Essbremse“.

Declining confidence in hormone therapy
Menopause starts with some women at the age of about 40 years and last about between five and fifteen years. While one third of women experience no or only slight discomfort during this time, another third of the menopause are accompanied by some severe symptoms. A few years ago, many women on hormone preparations for menopausal symptoms, so the confidence in such therapies has decreased sharply, according to a report of the Techniker Krankenkasse.

According to the TK, the reason for the massive decline could be that scientific studies have also shown possible dangers of hormone therapy - for example, an increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, heart attack and thrombosis due to certain hormone preparations.

Further studies are to follow
So far, there are different explanations for the weight gain after the menopause, such as a hormonal change in metabolism. According to the scientists, it is new that genes and nerve cells could also play a role. Further studies will investigate whether the discovery of the gene mechanism can help to influence age-related weight gain in humans. (Ad)