====== Appetite Regulation ======

Very extensive research, over many decades, has identified a number of biochemical routes that can influence appetite in humans.

For an overview, see: [[https://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2010/12003/Mechanisms_of_Appetite_Regulation.4.aspx|Mechanisms of Appetite Regulation]] {{:oa_padlock_grn.png?16}}J//ournal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition// 51():p S123-S124,

In particular, the so called 'hunger hormones' //leptin// and //ghrelin//, are known to play a crucial role in the biochemical feedback mechanisms involving the brain - especially in the hypothalamus. Pleasure-seeking responses to food intake are also influenced, for example, by endorphins, dopamine, and endocannabinoids.

The feedback system is so complex - involving not only bio-chemical, but also psychological and cultural factors - that an overall inclusive picture is not yet agreed.

>Appetite regulation by the brain undoubtedly depends on signals received from the periphery. The stimulus to eat, at first claimed to originate in the stomach, is now proposed to be a consequence of departures from homeostatic levels of glucose, lipids, or amino acids. __Debate continues about whether changes in the availability of each of these metabolic fuels give rise to separate feedback signals or whether this information is integrated to produce a single, common, stimulus to eat."__\\ \\ Source : [[https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/appetite-regulation|International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences]]

The lack of understanding presumably contributes to the current slow progress in tackling the so-called 'obesity epidemic'.

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Also see : [[content:medicine:treatments:weightloss_surgery]]

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