Obesity: Nature's Slenderizer

When a man is deprived of food, nature prolongs his life by helping him burn up whatever fat he has stored in his body. Perhaps because this has been known for so long, no one has figured out how nature does it, or whether the mechanism might be used to help fat people slim down. In 15 years of investigating this process, the University of London's Dr. Alan Kekwick and colleagues have found that people on a voluntary starvation regimen produce, somewhere in their bodies, a "fat mobilizing substance" (FMS). The substance speeds and eases the process whereby fat stored in the body can be withdrawn and utilized by the body as energy. Excess FMS is excreted in the urine.

After laborious FMS extraction, the Kekwick team finally collected enough to try on six patients at Middlesex Hospital. Put on a diet of 1,500 calories per day, the patients received injections every other day. Half of the time they got FMS; the rest of the time they got salt solution. In the salt periods they lost only an average of 81 grams (less than 3 oz.) per day, while on FMS they lost 231 grams or just over half a pound per day.

The method shows promise as the most natural way to reduce while on a moderately low-calorie diet. One problem, in proving its value, is going to be getting enough FMS. Another is that effectiveness may wear off after repeated doses; so how long treatment can be maintained is still in doubt.