Or I don't know, you could just infect yourself with some nasty disease. Sick people tend to lose weight, too.<p>Just saying that weight loss in itself is not necessarily saying much.
I think it's fascinating to imagine a future where scientists finally discover the "anti-fat" drug. I believe it's bound to happen in our lifetimes. In a world where only the poor are fat, it would be very interesting to see how this affects the perception of attractiveness in middle class/upper class society. Would we adapt to value knowledge above physical appearance?
On the other hand, we're talking about a drug that selectively turns off blood flow. That it affects fat cells was only visible because subcutaneous fat is rather obvious.<p>But what other cells did it affect? It's not well known yet. For all we know it's stomping on some neurons, or diddling with kidneys, or weakening the left ventricle of monkey hearts. It's too soon to get excited.
The obvious question is what will happen to the excess blood sugar, when it's no longer being taken up by fat cells. Would this promote insulin resistance?
Anyone else wonder where they got obese monkeys from? I guess they feed them up terrible diets or something...<p>And because the article had no pictures of obese monkeys, and I was curious to know what an obese monkey looked like... heres a google search : <a href="http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=obese+monkey&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=obese+monkey&um=1&i...</a>
Obesity has been an annoyingly difficult problem to "solve". I say "solve" because in most cases the solution is simply to eat sensibly and not be sedentary (ignoring people with genuine physiological problems such as thyroid conditions).<p>But there is unquestionably a desire for people to be able to eat essentially what they want and to stay slimmer older. At some point someone will figure out a pharmaceutical solution to that problem and make a fortune (probably eclipsing what Viagra did for Pfizer). Current drugs that block appetite and/or fat absorption tend to have nasty side effects and questionable utility.<p>Killing fat cells is certainly a novel approach, especially considering that relationship between fat cells and weight changes (eg fat cells will increase in size to a certain point before growing new fat cells), one that may even be relevant for people who have lost a lot of weight.