Zombie Research Society
LiveScience reports that a substance in the saliva of the Gila monster called exendin-4 can reduce food cravings. The naturally occurring compound makes eating sweet and fatty foods less rewarding to the brain.
Simply by ingesting exendin-4, rats lost their cravings for both food and chocolate. The new discovery may be a breakthrough in weight-loss science, as researcher Suzanne Dickson explains:
“As exendin-4 suppresses the cravings for food, it can help obese people to take control of their weight.”
Obese people often keep eating in search of the rewarding activity in the brain, leading to full blown food addiction. In a zombie pandemic, exendin-4 may also be a safe tool in fighting everyday hunger brought on by constant food shortages.
It’s not uncommon for people in impoverished areas of the world to use drugs to suppress chronic hunger. In isolated regions of Afghanistan, babies are given opium to calm them when food is not available, leading to lifelong addiction problems.
If exendin-4 proves to be a safe, natural, non-habit forming way to reduce preoccupation with food when eating is not an option, then it would allow survivors to more clearly focus on more pressing issues in a zombie infested world.
Maybe we can finally stop dreaming about those damned Twinkies!
I would use this if the only thing for nutrients are IV fluid packs..
It could be harmful to use in a survival scenario but if the violence caused by zombies is because of their uncontrollable hunger than it could be used to eventually domesticate them. Like in Day of the Dead or Fido. Pet zombies anyone? 🙂
A synthetic version of exendin-4, called exenatide (Byetta) is already being sold to help with glucose control in diabetic patients. Perhaps this discovery is just another use for this drug. Patients who take this drug do tend to lose weight, which is difficult to do if one has Type 2 diabetes.
Before anyone thinks about stocking up on this for the ZA, this drug has been correlated with gastrointestinal system side effects, including an increased risk of acute pancreatitis. It must be injected, which may prove difficult in an environment with sanitation limitations.
Oh, and zombie hunger might not be hunger at all, just the infectious agent looking for a means of transmission. Happy hunting!
Sounds like a plan now, I’ve worked on going without food when I camp and try to hold out as long as I can for water….. It sucks the pangs of hunger and thirst when your walking and trying to think become overpowering. I’ve done this for years and it still is no easier. I can’t imagine people who haven’t tried it or have never gone through the pangs of hunger. But maybe that’s how we’ll weed out the bad genes. People who can survive and thrive will be rewarded with life, and able to rebuild. This drug will definitely help woth survival if it can be produced not only to keep out cravings down but if we were able to get into the zombies could be a major advantage
The problem with suppressing your hunger is that you are tricking your body into thinking it doesn’t need to have its energy replenished. I can see this being used in extreme circumstances, but I think it could be dangerous to try and manipulate the bodies natural urges. You may not think you need food, but you do and that could become deadly in high stress situations.
Good point. The notion is that it could be used when food is not an option, so you are not preoccupied and can focus on immediate survival issues.
I’m gonna agree with mike, if we wanted to try for a cure we could use this to curb their hunger and treat them with whatever we develop. Ultimately unless we had enough survivors and skilled survivors we won’t be able to rebuild.
Why not give it to the zombies to reduce their hunger too?
Then we would need to stock up on this chemical and depending how much you need to suppress your hunger vs how much food you could store in that place it may be easier to just go with food. Also you don’t want to suppress hunger to the point where you are starving, you don’t want to collapse from exhaustion because you haven’t ate in 4 days because you wasn’t hungry, especially if the horde is just behind you.