Potential Obesity Treatment Will Cause Permanent Exhaustion and Constant Pain

by Heidi Stevenson

6 January 2010

A potential treatment for obesity is being touted as an effortless cure, one that allows people to continue eating and remaining indolent. One detail, though, is largely ignored. The weight loss would come at the expense of exhaustion and pain—and the effect would likely be permanent.

Such a deal!

The Study

As so often proves to be the case, reading the study tells a story that is far removed from what the media portrays or the researchers themselves promote. Mayo Clinic researchers have found that removing a cellular channel that conserves energy by storing it in the form of fat results in permanent weight loss. The study also states, "...obesity restriction was achieved at the cost of compromised physical endurance."

ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the molecule that provides energy to cells. The K_ATP (potassium-ATP) channel is part of the process to convert excess food energy to glycogen or fat, which are both methods of storing energy.

Dr. Alexey E. Alekseev and his team found a way to eliminate the the K_ATP channel in juvenile mice. The mice were allowed to eat freely from a "regular chow diet". The control mice grew to be obese, while the K_ATP mice stayed slender. However, the price for thinness was exhaustion and excessive heart activity. Muscles are pressed into overactivity. Their expenditure of energy is significantly increased.

According to the study, several abnormalities contributed to the "decreased workload endurance":

• Delay in enzymatic reactions needed for skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism.
• Anaerobic processes, causing excess lactate accumulation. This results in pain and cramping.
• Compromised cardiac function.
• Inability "to sustain stress-free voluntary performance".

The study doesn't discuss the poor mice's behavior, other than activity levels, but it seems safe to say that they led lives of constant pain.

The Marketing Has Begun

Alekseev, the study's lead author, stated:

Our findings suggest that therapeutic targeting of the KATP channel function, specifically in muscle, could offer a new option for obese patients with lower capacity for exercise.

In his promotion of the study, he doesn't mention that the already-reduced exercise capacity of the obese would be even further lessened—a fact that he must know, since the effects are clearly documented in the study report, where he is the lead author.

Coauthor Leonid Zingman stated:

In some ways it may seem paradoxical to fight against what is a very good system for fueling our muscles with energy efficiency. On the other hand, it's also paradoxical that many of us today have an excessive food supply and we don't need to move.

Far more paradoxical is the idea that the way to resolve the problem of obesity is by destroying quality of life—yet that's precisely what any drug that eliminates the K_ATP channel would do. It would cause constant exhaustion and pain.

Lest there be any doubt about the purpose of this K_ATP research, note that one of the financial supporters of it was the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Its entire focus is on "advancing the discipline and practice of clinical pharmacology", according to the statement at the top of their website.

As good and interesting basic research, this study is certainly valuable. However, when the researchers hype it with the clear intimation that it's the beginning of a new drug or treatment, then the real purpose becomes clear. The goal of this study was to find a new pharmaceutical product. Helping the obese is not the focus. Instead, they are hoping to make big profits on the bodies of the obese.