Every living organism has something to add to the worlds overall functioning----Everything is on the planet to serve some type purpose and function.............As our great early 20th Century Naturalist, Aldo Leopold always said: "KEEP ALL THE COGS AND WHEELS"------With this in mind, Pharmaceutical Giant, Amgen, is studying captive Grizzly Bears at Washington State University to determine how they can eat up to 58,000 calories a day without getting fat or developing heart disease and diabetes...............Test results so far suggest that bears modify their sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which controls how sugars and fats are broken down and used for energy...................Even if the worst of us cannot think beyond our own well being(let alone the well being of other creatures), then selfishly we should be looking to rewild our world for the benefit of future generations of our species(let alone the myriad of other species walking the planet)

Before they hibernate, grizzlies (pictured) eat around 100lbs worth of nuts, salmon and berries

Could bears hold the cure to OBESITY? Grizzlies
 eat up to 58,000 calories a day yet don't get fat or
 develop heart disease


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2524726
/Could-bears-hold-cure-OBESITY-Grizzlies-eat-58-000
-calories-day-dont-fat-develop-heart-disease.html

Could bears hold the cure to OBESITY? Grizzlies

 eat up to 58,000 calories a day yet don't get fat

 or develop heart disease

• ...
• U.S. drug maker Amgen is now researching 12 grizzlies 
• held in captivity at Washington State University to work
•  out how they manage to stay healthy

By DANIEL BATES

PUBLISHED: 11:32 EST, 16 December 2013 | UPDATED: 11:35 EST, 16 December 2013

Scientists are studying grizzly bears in the hope they can

 help solve

 the worldwide obesity crisis - because they are surprisingly

 good slimmers. 

A study has begun into the fearsome 1,000lbs creatures

 because they

 eat up to 58,000 calories a day but don't get fat.

Before they hibernate grizzlies eat around 100lbs worth

 of nuts, salmon

 and berries which increases their cholesterol and causes

 their blood 

pressure to jump.

Yet unlike humans, they do not suffer heart attacks or 

clogged arteries -

 and they don't become diabetics.

U.S. drug maker Amgen is now researching 12 grizzlies

 held in captivity

 at Washington State University to work out how they do it.

Dr Kevin Corbit has been looking at their fat deposits, 

monitoring their 

hearts, analysing their blood and conducting biopsies

 in the hope the

 bears will yield their weight loss secrets.It is the only 

facility in the 

world housing adult grizzlies and offers a unique

 opportunity to study them.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Dr Corbit 

was inspired by Yogi

 Bear and his portly figure when trying to think of 

a way to research weight

 loss.

He said that the test results so far suggest 

that bears modify their

 sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which 

controls how sugars and

 fats are broken down and used for energy.

As they put on weight before hibernation, bears

 seem to be more sensitive 

to insulin, he said.

But when hibernation begins they seem to shut

 off their responsiveness to

 the hormone completely.

Hope for humans? Experts say that from the test results

 so far, bears modify their sensitivity

 to the hormone insulin, which controls how sugars and 

fats are broken down and are used 

for energy

Dr Corbit plans to spend the next two years working out

 how exactly the

 mechanism works.
His work will be assisted by the sequencing of of the 

bears' genome which 

he hopes will be completed soon.

The Washington State University bear centre was set

 up 27 years ago and the

 animals there were born on site or rescued from places

 where they went too

 close to humans such as in a national park.

Dr Corbit, who until now has only worked with rats in a

 laboratory, had to take

 extra precautions when dealing with the grizzlies.The

facility where they are

 held has electric fences buried underground so the

 bears can't dig them up.

 The bears themselves are kept in steel crates when

 they are being inspected

 and are put under before samples are taken.

Dr Corbit has also become adept at using honey to

 distract them whilst another

 resarcher scans their hearts.

Amgen research executive Dr Alexander Kamb said 

the grizzly bear research

 was unusual but given how big an issue obesity had

 become, it made sense

 to think differently. He said: 'I want to learn how the 

grizzly bears work their magic'.