A recent study conducted by Yale School of Medicine has revealed that the urge to eat can become addictive just like recreational drugs and sex to individuals who crave for yet another go.
The same hormone associated with your hunger pangs has now been identified as the one to be responsible for influencing the pleasure inducing area of the brain which can chain a person to getting addicted to certain substances or stimuli .It is imperative that everyone should have an urge to eat without which definitely one would die according to Dr. Tamas Horvath, chairperson of comparative medicine at Yale University's school of medicine, in New Haven, Conn.In the investigations done as part of the research which was co- sponsored by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Dr Horvath, a veterinarian and neuroscientist found out that the hormone ghrelin which is produced in the stomach to stimulate eating actually acts on a part of the brain, called the ventral tegmental area (VTA), that has proven to be the seat of all the pleasurable stimulations like drugs and sexual activity. Dr Howarth opines that this strong urge to eat would have got conditioned over the years in all creatures so that it is ensured that this craving will keep living beings on their toes out of the sheer need for sustenance.This ensures survival of a species.
This discovery throws open new vistas for the treatment of addictive eating.Dr Howard divulged that a new drug now available in the European market for treatment of obesity works via this neural pathway described .
Source-Medindia
MST
