Interpretating Peptides, Food Intake, and Body Weight

Today I watched a technical, but interesting, video of a University lecture given on March 26, 2013 by Stephen C. Woods about Peptides, Food Intake and Body Weight: Problems of Interpretation.

Peptides are organic substances of which the molecules are structurally like those of proteins, but smaller. Peptide Hormones include insulin, leptin, ghrelin, glucagon, growth hormone, obestatin as well as many, many others.

For many years Dr. Woods has been involved in obesity scientific research, primarily re insulin.

He said that a key question is whether the Responses that counter drug/food effects are actually Unconditional, invariant and whether or not traditional concepts of Homeostatsis are viable.

In considering this question, note the following:

Homeostaisis --- Unconditioned stimulas equals Unconditioned Response.

There are ...

Homeostatic Controls - Hypothalamus (part of the brain primarily involved with involuntary stimulas and response of Peptides)

and....

Non-Homeostatic Controls – Amugdala, Accumbens, etc ( parts of the brain involving Anxiety, social situations, learning, hedonics, etc.)

The process of Homostaisis can be disturbed by Non-Homeostatic Controls.

Food intake involves BOTH types of Controls at the same time. Food intake is a Behavior which involves BOTH (unconditioned) physiological and (conditioned) psychological factors: An Example of a Conditioned stimulas and Conditioned response is Pavlov’s dog.

Based on his many years of involvement with scientific research re Peptides, Dr. Woods states the following Conclusions:

Conclusion 1:
Different labs get different results when administering Peptides and assessing food inake.

Conclusion 2: 
Peptides alter food intake in some situations and not others.

Conclusion 3:
The ability of a Peptide to alter food intake varies within the same lab.

Conclusion 4:
Subtle, or not so subtle, environmental factors can determine whether a Peptide influences food intake, and can even reverse the direction of the response.

To watch the lecture click the following link: Peptides, Food Intake and Body Weight: Problems of Interpretation.