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Monday, October 5, 2009

Positive relationship between dietary fat, ethanol intake, triglycerides, and hypothalamic peptides: counteraction by lipid-lowering drugs
Alcohol Volume 43,Font size Issue 6, September 2009, Pages 433-441

Studies in both humans and animals suggest a positive relationship between the intake of ethanol and intake of fat, which may contribute to alcohol abuse. This relationship may be mediated, in part, by hypothalamic orexigenic peptides such as orexin (OX), which stimulate both consumption of ethanol and fat, and circulating triglycerides (TGs), which stimulate these peptides and promote consummatory behavior.

The present study investigated this vicious cycle between ethanol and fat, to further characterize its relation to TGs and to test the effects of lowering TG levels. .

These results support the existence of a vicious cycle between ethanol and fat, whereby each nutrient stimulates intake of the other. Within this vicious cycle, ethanol and fat act synergistically to increase TG levels, which in turn stimulate peptides that promote further consumption, and these phenomena are reversed by gemfibrozil, which lowers TG levels.


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