Daily Mail, 30 Apr 2008. Page 3

Pill that lets you eat what you like without piling on weight

By Fiona MacRae Science Reporter

IT is every dieter’s dream – a pill that allows you to lose weight safely without actually going on a diet.

But such fat-fighting drugs are already the stuff of reality, according to researchers.

They say tablets widely used to lower blood pressure could help melt away unwanted pounds as well.

Experiments suggest that ACE inhibitor pills can speed up the metabolism, allowing excess weight to be lost quickly.

The findings could lead to the pills, taken by millions to combat hypertension, being repackaged as fat-burners.

Ultimately, they, or similar drugs, could allow the overweight to shed flab without even setting foot in a gym. With up to a quarter of Britons thought to be trying to lose weight and obesity rates the highest in Europe, such a pill would have mass appeal.

Australian researchers made the breakthrough in experiments on mice genetically altered to lack an enzyme found in fat cells.

Those lacking this angiotension converting enzyme, as it is known, weighed 20 per cent less than other mice and had up to 60 per cent less body fat.

The GM mice were no more active than the other creatures and ate just as much food but their metabolism was faster.

They also processed sugar more quickly, suggesting they were at lower risk of diabetes, says a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The finding raises the possibility that drugs that block the enzyme, such as blood pressure-lowering ACE inhibitors, could be used to help humans lose weight.

Warning that more work needs to be done before the prescription only pills are used to fight fat, researcher Dr Michael Matthias said: ‘The drugs are out there because they are used for hypertension.

‘So we know their safety and their tolerability. What we don’t know is whether or not they will work in humans.’

The researcher, from Melbourne University, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I don’t think this will replace the need for careful control of diet and encouraging more exercise.

‘If people look at increasing their food intake then all that will do is cancel out the beneficial effects of increasing metabolic rate.’

Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of the British charity Weight Concern, said: ‘All the evidence we have is that nothing works better than a healthy diet and increased physical activity, with or without weight loss drugs.’

F.Macrae@DailyMail.co.uk

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Daily Mail
30 Apr 2008