Have Scientist Finally Invented “Magic” Fat Cure?

This is the type of headline that usually turns out to be click-bait for some spurious weight-loss scam. But, scientists at London's Imperial College are saying they might be onto, "the most exciting treatment ever" for fighting obesity. The gist is that there is an inject-able combination of hormone treatment that shows promising results. Specifically, in early testing, subjects given the hormones glucagon and GLP-1 at 13% fewer calories than subjects given a placebo injection of saline.

13% is a fairly large reduction in caloric intake by any standard. The challenge now, according to the researchers, will be developing the hormone treatment for a longer term. If this is done, the researchers say, the results may be close to those seen in patients who've have bariatric surgery. Here's an article about it in The Telegraph  Here's one from The Sun.

A word of caution: neither of these meet the scholarly standard of "peer-review". The news comes from the popular press and until you see something in a peer-reviewed publication it's probably always safer to be skeptical. That said, until Viagra was synthesized 20 years ago, the idea of a "magic pill" that could cure boner-related problems was a pipe dream (literally). If this treatment pans out you won't have to read about it in a tabloid or on a radio station blog. It'll be as big as Viagra only, instead of increasing your girth it will do the opposite. Suffice to say, if we see Dr. Oz touting this anytime soon we can probably discount it as yet more snake-oil and hum-buggery.