Weight loss may be just as easy as popping a stick of gum in your mouth.

Robert Doyle, an associate professor of chemistry at Syracuse University, led a two-year study that proved the PYY hormone helps those who struggle with weight issues. Collaborating with a team of researchers from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, Doyle has found a way for PYY to enter the bloodstream when taken orally.

PYY is a hormone that regulates appetite and energy, and it is found in the body. When people exercise or eat, PYY is released into the bloodstream. The more calories consumed, the more PYY is released, according to a Nov. 21 SU news release.

Previous studies have proven people who are obese have lower concentrations of PYY in their bloodstream, both when fasting and after eating than their non-obese counterparts, according to the release.

When receiving IV forms of PYY, participants, who were both obese and non-obese, consumed fewer calories.

The difficulty was figuring out a way to attach the PYY hormone to something that would allow it to pass through the digestive system undetected because the hormone is usually destroyed when ingested.

Doyle developed a way in which another hormone, insulin, could be taken orally. By figuring out a way to attach insulin to vitamin B12, B12 was able to pass through the digestive system without much difficulty and was able to deliver insulin into the bloodstream effectively.

The teams found B12 could be successful in safely moving the PYY hormone through the digestive track and into the bloodstream, according to the news release.

With the discovery of a safe way to transport PYY through the body and discovering that PYY can aid in weight loss, Doyle hopes to make some sort of item that would allow PYY to enter the bloodstream effectively when ingested orally, such as a stick of gum.

‘I think an oral supplement that has little or no side-effects and that works alongside diet and exercise to help obese individuals lose weight would be a great benefit,’ Doyle said in an email.

‘They could eat a balanced meal, then chew a stick of gum. The PYY supplement would begin to kick in about three to four hours later, decreasing their appetite as they approach their next meal,’ Doyle said in the article.

If this gum were to come to fruition, Doyle said in the email, it would help ease the obesity epidemic Americans and others around the world face.

Doyle said in the release: ‘Phase one of this study was to show that we could deliver a clinically relevant amount of PYY into the bloodstream. We did that and we are very excited by the results.’

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Published on November 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm