Scientists plan to fight obesity from birth

SCIENTISTS have revealed plans to combat obesity by “rewiring” babies’ appetites at birth.

They hope to develop drugs to control the amount of food we eat from infancy, or later in life for people who are overweight.

It had been believed nerve cells in the brain associated with appetite control were generated entirely in an embryo in the womb and therefore their numbers were fixed.

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But new research has identified a group of stem cells capable of triggering new appetite-regulating neurons in young and adult mice in an area of the brain known as the hypothalmus.

The team at the University of East Anglia say their study published in the Journal of Neuroscience could be translated into an effective strategy in humans within five to ten years.

Dr Mohammad Hajihosseini said: “Unlike dieting, translation of this discovery could eventually offer a permanent solution for tackling obesity.

“Our study has shown the circuitry that controls appetite is not fixed and could possibly be manipulated numerically to tackle eating disorders.

“Our hope is that drugs could affect these stem cells in such a way that more appetite suppressing neurons are produced, or even appetite suppressing ones.”