Obesity: Cure is Linked to Hunger Hormone Leptin

Obesity may have a cure — new studies are attempting to isolate leptin, a hunger hormone, to control the over indulgent appetite. Watch on this week’s WLS News.

Nathan Freeman was a high school student when he joined an academic team to research a cure for obesity.  Now he’s a sophomore at the University of Southern Mississippi, and he and fellow researchers have some big ideas about diabetes.

Right now, they’re experimenting with the hunger-regulating hormone known as leptin. This hormone can also increase human heart rate, and it has an effect on diabetes that is similar to insulin.

Freeman and his team want to learn how to isolate this hormone’s ability to lower hunger – and at the same time, not activate its ability to raise heart rate. They hope to attack both diabetes and obesity by figuring out a way to regulate our sensitivity to leptin. Video plays below.