Weight-loss breakthrough: Eat all you want, still lose weight

What's the news: Mice can now eat all they want and still look slim, thanks to a newly developed drug.

Why should we believe it: This news is based on a study published earlier this week by scientists in South Korea. The scientists discovered that a set of cells in the brain ("GABRA5-positive neurons in the lateral hypothalamic area") connect to fat cells throughout the body and regulate fat storage and energy expenditure.

The scientists also found that a drug, KDS2010, influences those fat-controlling neurons. When obese mice, who continued to be fed a high-fat diet, were given this drug, they:

• Lost a significant amount of fat

• Did not lose lean muscle mass

• Decreased their body weight to the level of normal-weight mice, who were fed a normal diet

Why this is a big deal: You've probably heard of Ozempic and Wegovy, recent blockbuster drugs that allow people to lose weight easily. Such drugs work by controlling appetite.

On the one hand, this is beneficial — calorie restriction is good both for losing weight and for longevity. But it also has its bad points — such as reported instances of gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis.

The drug in this study promises an entirely different mechanism to lose weight, which doesn't involve any kind of calorie restriction. It's still to be seen whether eating all the glazed donuts, Twinkies, and triple stacker hamburgers you could ever want is good for your health, even if you don't put on a gram of fat. But it's exciting to know that this might soon be an option.

So what specifically can you do now: This is only a mouse study, but human studies are already underway, because KDS2010 seems to be a very exciting and versatile chemical. It has been transferred to Neurobiogen, a Korean biotech company.

Neurobiogen is currently running phase 1 studies to test the safety of this drug for Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, obesity, and Parkinson's disease. Stay tuned, because if this does turn out to be as big of a story as it's making out to be, I will definitely cover it again in Long Youthspan.