You finish a meal. You feel satisfied. Your blood sugar starts to adjust to what you have just eaten.
A lot is happening inside your body.
One of the messengers helping your body respond to a meal, is a hormone called amylin. You may not have heard much about it yet. But scientists have been studying it for decades – and the more we learn, the more interesting this hormone becomes.
Read on to unfold the science behind amylin and how it helps you.
Amylin is naturally produced in the pancreas and released alongside insulin when we eat.
Once released, it helps coordinate the body’s response to a meal. It sends signals that help the brain recognise when we have had enough to eat, slows the movement of food through the stomach and helps control how quickly blood sugar rises.
In other words, amylin is part of the everyday biology behind hunger, fullness and how our bodies handle food.
And that makes it particularly interesting when our scientists look at conditions such as overweight, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
No.
GLP-1 and amylin are both natural hormones involved in how the body responds to food. But they don’t work in the same way and send different signals through the body.
Some of their effects overlap. Others are unique. And importantly, they can also complement each other.
That raises an interesting scientific question: what could happen if we tap into more than one of the body’s natural signals?
Weight is one part of our health. But it is not the whole story.
Researchers are increasingly interested in what happens beyond the number on the scale – including appetite, blood sugar, changes in fat and muscle, physical function and other aspects of health.
Amylin research is part of that bigger picture.
Some possible effects, including those related to muscle and bone health, are still being investigated. There is still a lot to learn – and that is exactly why the research continues.
Obesity and type 2 diabetes are complex conditions – and people are different too. That’s why our researchers are exploring different ways of working with amylin.
We are studying potential treatments that act on amylin on its own, as well as approaches that combine amylin with GLP-1 and other hormones - both as pills and injection treatments.
Some involve separate molecules working together. Others are designed as a single molecule that can act on more than one of the body’s natural signals.
This is where clinical research comes in.
Ongoing studies are helping scientists understand what different amylin-based approaches may be able to do, how well they are tolerated, who they may help and how they could eventually fit into future care.
There will be more questions. More data. And certainly, more to learn.
Because the better we understand the signals already at work inside our bodies, the more possibilities we have to explore for better, lasting health.
