‘Fat jab will treat obesity disorders’

AN INJECTION that can treat a range of obesity-related disorders, such as heart disease, diabetes and even cancer could be available within two years.

The so-called “fat jab” contains the newly identified hormone irisin, which increases in the body during exercise, boosting energy expenditure and controlling blood glucose levels.

The chemical also helps to produce healthy brown fat, which people have as infants and which burns off weight but largely disappears with age. Instead, it is replaced by “bad” white fat, which typically sits as a spare tyre around the waist.

Official figures from the latest Scottish Health Survey suggest 27 per cent of people aged between 16 and 64 are obese, up from 17 per cent in 1994, with obesity levels predicted to increase to 40 per cent by 2030.

The research, published in Nature magazine, showed treating obese mice with irisin improved their glucose control, which could help diabetes sufferers, and triggered a small amount of weight loss.

Professor Bruce Spiegelman, of Harvard Medical School, who is developing the injection, said people could not skip the gym and build muscles by taking irisin supplements, because the hormone did not appear to make muscles stronger.