Jul 21, 2021

The Neuroscience of Hunger

Mustafa Sultan

Friends,

I’ve been enjoying The Hungry Brain. It covers the neuroscience of hunger and eating.

The Lipostat

Just like a house has a thermostat, the body has a lipostat. This is the body’s fat-regulating system. Just like a house thermostat adjusts heating/cooling to set the temperature, the lipostat adjusts conscious and unconscious behaviour to regulate fat gain/loss (Set Point Theory).

Sounds intuitive, but here’s where it gets even more complicated. We all understand that eating 1000 excess calories (regularly) will result in some weight gain (calories in, calories out).

But what you eat can actually change the set point of your lipostat.

In effect, eating an excess of highly palatable foods (like chocolate) hits your body with a double whammy. They’re calorie-dense, which in itself can cause weight gain, but on top of that, they turn up your lipostat — consciously/unconsciously causing you to gain weight.

The Hungry Brain by Stephan Guyenet

Why does our behavior betray our own intentions to be lean and healthy? The problem, argues obesity and neuroscience researcher Stephan Guyenet, is not necessarily a lack of willpower or an incorrect understanding of what to eat. Rather, our appetites and food choices are led astray by ancient, instinctive brain circuits that play by the rules of a survival game that no longer exists…

www.goodreads.com

Genetics vs Environment

Sort of related to the above, I think we all intrinsically feel that our height is mostly pre-determined, whilst weight is mostly under our control.

But twin studies disagree.

Both height and weight are about 80–100% heritable.

Genetic influences on the difference in variability of height, weight and body mass index between Caucasian and East Asian adolescent twins | International Journal of Obesity

First, we aimed to compare the total phenotypic, genetic and environmental variances of height, weight and BMI between Caucasians and East Asians using twins. Secondly, we intended to estimate the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to differences in variability of height, weight and BMI between Caucasians and East Asians…

www.nature.com

Pseudonymity

Something weird happened yesterday.

I wrote in March about how I’m going to switch my online presence from ‘Mustafa Sultan’ to Musty.io.

(Reasons explained in this post, but essentially because I’d like to separate my online identity from my real life one. This might stop weaponised GMC reporting in the future.

It’s also a much more useful bit of information than a full name. It conveys 1) what I like to be called and 2) a web address people can find out more about me.)

On a call yesterday, someone who didn’t know me — asked if I was Musty.io lol.

A little cringe, a little weird — but a step in the right direction.

New Paper

European stakeholder perspectives on challenges to rare disease drug development – a qualitative study

The multifaceted challenges of rare disease research remain, leaving a large proportion of rare disease patients without treatment options. This study aims to identify the challenges of rare diseas…

www.tandfonline.com

All the best,

Musty

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Mustafa Sultan @mustafasultan

Thoughts on healthcare, human optimisation and productivity. A little taste of what I'm thinking and reading about.

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