“ENDOGENOUS OPIOIDS: A STEP TO PREVENT OBESITY”

Abstract

The unprecedented number of temptations in our consumer society has created new challenges for obesity research. Constrained food availability no longer exists in most countries of the world, replaced instead by a superfluity of easily accessible and cheap sources of energy. This dramatic alteration in the food environment has substantially affected our normal food intake and exaggerated the physiologic distinction between homeostatic hunger—that which follows a period of relatively prolonged food deprivation— and hedonic hunger, which occurs in the absence of privation. The latter is largely regulated by the palatability and rewarding properties of food, and is believed to play a critical role in the escalating prevalence of obesity. Obesity and its secondary chronic diseases are a massive burden on the Western healthcare system; therefore the pharmacological industry has taken an interest in the development of weight reducing therapeutics. Recent trends of opioid and cannabinoid systems are implicated in mediating the hedonic value of palatable foods, both opioid and cannabinoid antagonists have been explored for their possible use as anorectic compounds,and both have demonstrated promising results.