Python Blood Could Hold the Secret To Healthy Weight Loss (colorado.edu)
- Reference: 0181212022
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/04/02/2316241/python-blood-could-hold-the-secret-to-healthy-weight-loss
- Source link: https://www.colorado.edu/today/2026/03/19/python-blood-could-hold-secret-healthy-weight-loss
> CU Boulder researchers are reporting that they have [2]discovered an appetite-suppressing compound in python blood that helps the snakes consume enormous meals and go months without eating yet remain metabolically healthy. The findings were [3]published in the journal Natural Metabolism on March 19, 2026.
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> Pythons can grow as big as a telephone pole, swallow an antelope whole, and go months or even years without eating -- all while maintaining a healthy heart and plenty of muscle mass. In the hours after they eat, research has shown, their heart expands 25% and their metabolism speeds up 4,000-fold to help them digest their meal. The team measured blood samples from ball pythons and Burmese pythons, fed once every 28 days, immediately after they ate a meal. In all, they found 208 metabolites that increased significantly after the pythons ate. One molecule, called para-tyramine-O-sulfate (pTOS) soared 1,000-fold.
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> Further studies, done with Baylor University researchers, showed that when they gave high doses of pTOS to obese or lean mice, it acted on the hypothalamus, the appetite center of the brain, prompting weight loss without causing gastrointestinal problems, muscle loss or declines in energy. The study found that pTOS, which is produced by the snake's gut bacteria, is not present in mice naturally. It is present in human urine at low levels and does increase somewhat after a meal. But because most research is done in mice or rats, pTOS has been overlooked.
"We've basically discovered an appetite suppressant that works in mice without some of the side-effects that GLP-1 drugs have," said senior author Leslie Leinwand, a distinguished professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology who has been studying pythons in her lab for two decades. Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy act on the hormone glucagon-like petide-1 (GLP-1).
[1] https://slashdot.org/~fahrbot-bot
[2] https://www.colorado.edu/today/2026/03/19/python-blood-could-hold-secret-healthy-weight-loss
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-026-01485-0?error=cookies_not_supported&code=14dfc82d-66e8-415f-9d84-e4b9a3ef1354
Taking the piss (Score:1)
So, is it now time to start drinking human urine? Fresh from the source is best?
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Tonight, you drink from the bottle.
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I don't want to kink shame anyone, but maybe you should keep your fetishes to yourself!
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doesn't work. haven't americans been "brewing" and slurping down budweiser for decades, now?
on topic: not eating like a pig works for weight loss too, and even more healthy. leave the fucking pythons alone.
Redneck Gold Rush (Score:2)
If python blood is 6 months away from a 12-figure IPO in the Waistline wars and Body Positivity battles, Greed will invade the Florida Everglades and turn it into another country from a tax perspective. You’ll need a Visa to cross alligator alley.
kewl story bro, but these drugs aren't for them (Score:5, Interesting)
> It's a thing. Don't buy the food, don't eat the food. Only yesterday I watched a couple waddle out of a bakery with a large bag filled with cakes, buns and pastries. They were under 40 years old and already unable to walk properly.
"Only yesterday, I saw a guy with lung cancer smoke. If everyone stopped smoking, there would be no more cancer, right?" Isn't it that simple? Additionally, if everyone trained as hard as Lebron James, they'd all be able to dunk like him, right?
Your anecdote is a moronic simplification of a complex topic you clearly know nothing about. You're welcome to judge them like an asshole, but by the same logic, I have the right to call you a clueless asshole. Do you feel like a big man for shitting on the fatties?
OK, so you saw a is couple who are a bunch of lardasses with self-control issues. They're fat from reckless behavior. These drugs are not for them. Drugs are for people who eat responsibly and exercise and do everything right, but aren't at a healthy weight. They're never Plan A. Every fat person of a certain age knows they need to improve and nearly everyone tries to once their weight goes from a theoretical concern and aesthetic issue to something tangible that shows actual symptoms and a threat to your life. Some turn it around, many (if not most) most who started off as fat kids don't.
What assholes like you fail to understand is that for some, they act like a jackass and they get fat. They stop acting reckless and they slim down. Most of them started off as normal-weight kids. But a rather large percentage of us were fat kids who ate even less than you did. Some bodies are eager to store every surplus calorie as fat, most aren't. Some people have reliable hunger signaling, some don't. There's a lot of genetic variation and biology is not deterministic. What works for you, may not for others.
I'll wager I'm leaner and fitter than you, but it's a fucking struggle and drugs are helpful. I've lived off salads and protein supplement for the last 10 years, gotten 30 minutes of cardio daily, typically cycling many miles. I've LONG stopped eating sweets and drinking soda and eating bread, etc for 20 years. However, until I was on drugs, my bodyfat was 30%. You can't tell because I workout enough to hide it and have 17" arms. Since tirzepatide, I've probably gotten it down to 25%. I look pretty good, but I workout and eat like a psycho and have a dadbod.
What drugs taught me is that my hunger signals are worthless. They go off too early, so I have to suppress them until I am light headed...if I get to the point where I nearly passout a few times a day and with drugs, don't get a spike in hunger and eating afterwards, only then can I slowly lose weight...and for starving myself to the point where I can't even focus my eyes or safely walk, I lose less than a pound a week....while living off salad, protein, few carbs, no sweets, etc...food has been fuel for over a decade for me, no eating out, no joy at meals, etc. Are those fat fucks like me? I am confident they're not, but again, the drugs are for people like me, not them
Metabolism is one of the most complex functions of the body and we don't know much about it. We're constantly learning new things. It involves a lot of complex signaling with peptides that are quite fragile and difficult to study. Once you identify them, they have to be injected because your stomach will ingest them, making testing all the harder. We have a lot to learn.
But until then, be a smug asshole if you want...I'll be sure to point out that you're a smug, clueless asshole.
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You have to admit that the majority of people are not like diligent you but are more like those bakery patrons. So the people on that bell curve end up all getting put together in one KFC bucket. And don't kid yourself, the drugs will be plan A for the majority if not already.
We wouldn't buy a 100 # bag of dog food, open it in the corner and let the dog feed itself--it couldn't do it. So I presume we are not designed to have constant food access either, be it donuts or salads. The snake in the articl
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"You have to admit that the majority of people are not like diligent you but are more like those bakery patrons"
So then the drugs sound like the best option? The only other argument is basically that of a sociopath -- people should be punished because they don't have the willpower you think they do.
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Well no, the best option would be doing more to encourage people to live in a healthy manor. We spent a ridiculous amount of effort to stop smoking in this country but have done almost nothing in regards to obesity which is killing far more people than smoking ever did.
Typo (Score:2)
Ugh, manor = manner. Typo...
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"We spent a ridiculous amount of effort to stop smoking in this country but have done almost nothing in regards to obesity"
I disagree strongly. We have spent as a society uncounted billions on addressing obesity, including on government programs. The problem is it's just a harder problem than smoking.
At the end of the day, just about everybody knows obesity is bad and that you have to exercise and eat healthier. Lack of knowledge isn't the problem.
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Where are the constant awareness commercials telling people they are endangering the lives of themselves and their children with their lifestyle habits? Where's the heavy taxes on the stuff we know is killing Americans. We have never taken the issue of obesity as seriously as the issue of smoking in this country.
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I am dealing with the dog issue right now. Every dog I have had previous to my current 2 basically did have the 100 pound bag of food. We filled their dishes whenever they got low and none of the dogs were overweight. My two now are different and different from each other. They are sisters and they eat the same stuff and get the same exercise. One looks like a supermodel, a gorgeous blue-eyed long legged Husky girl. Her sister has the same eyes but is quite overweight. Even being siblings, something is diff
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People used to complain that my Setter was too skinny, even though she had unlimited kibble supply from a 2 gallon dispenser. I figured out years later when I found one of her teeth on the floor that she had abscesses on her teeth, which likely made it hurt to eat kibble. But she never complained about it, so I never knew. Turns out I should have been spending the money for wet food. I miss that dog, she only lived for 12 years.
It's easier to quit fentanyl than be skinny. (Score:2)
> And don't kid yourself, the drugs will be plan A for the majority if not already.
Every responsible doctor prescribes drugs after diet and exercise fail. The drugs SUCK...hence why they're interested in this new one. I hate how I feel 24h after injection. Your stomach emptying slows down and whatever you ate ferments in your stomach. It's really gross...and yes, I am being coy about what happens afterwards. If I didn't need the drugs, I'd do anything else. Drugs are ALWAYS a last resort. If you can get the same results naturally, you want to do it naturally. All drugs have side e
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Junkies are usually skin and bones after awhile, so maybe quitting fentanyl is the wrong thing to be quitting?
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The flip side is that we have dramatically more obese people now than we ever had in the past so a lot of these folks shouldn't need medication and really aren't solving problems for themselves that they could and for the sake of their health, should. It's even trickling down to kids, we're currently raising the fattest generation of Americans ever.
These drugs are great for folks like yourself who can't lose the weight on their own but they're enabling a lot of bad lifestyle choices for a ton of others.
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About three quarters of Americans are overweight or obese. So at most you can say some people an exceptional ability to regulate their weight effectively without assistance.
People have been arguing for years that people need to do more exercise and eat more healthy food. They have been trying to regulate food producers and advertising to make healthy eating easier and more affordable. These efforts have failed. You can argue that we should try harder, but realistically the chances of it working seem to be q
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For most (not all) the weight is just a symptom of bad lifestyle choices that will continue to effect their health even after the weight is lost though. Never mind that going by childhood obesity metrics in the US, many of these folks are passing on their bad lifestyles to their kids which means a lifetime of health problems for them as childhood obesity is quite bad for a person's long term health even if the weight is later lost.
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> We wouldn't buy a 100 # bag of dog food, open it in the corner and let the dog feed itself--it couldn't do it.
Ive had two dogs that would refuse to eat too much dog food, they weren’t the eat now ask questions never type. I always refilled a large bowl and they always had food but neither were overweight. They both were very picky and preferred human food and on the rare occasions they got some or stole some they didn’t have the sense not to stop eating when full and kept eating stuff that made them sick because there are so many things dogs can’t tolerate that we can. One of them even ate Amer
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If you are diabetic, sure. Otherwise, you obviously haven't known anyone who has tried to get this as a weight control solution and deal with insurance that absolutely doesn't want to pay for that stuff.
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I wouldn't be surprised if those "doctors" will also sell you the "Ozempic". Guaranteed to have spent at least one day in the same room as a genuine vial of real Ozempic.
Prove it - like a Rolex for $50 on the corner (Score:2)
>> OK, so you saw a is couple who are a bunch of lardasses with self-control issues. They're fat from reckless behavior. These drugs are not for them. Drugs are for people who eat responsibly and exercise and do everything right, but aren't at a healthy weight. They're never Plan A. .
> I can download an app on my phone and speak to a "doctor" that will sign me up with Ozempic in 5 minutes. Don't kid yourself.
I'll call your bluff. You're full of shit. Where can you do this? No respectable doctor does this and Ozempic, as of pretty recently, is not available compounded (legally). You can't get name brand drugs OTC. So is this like that Rolex I can buy outside a bodega in a bad neighborhood? There are a some clinics that are worse than major doctors, but insurance won't cover it.
Also, Ozempic is approx $500/month out of pocket. Who the fuck has that much money, but not the willpower to join a gym and e
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> Also, Ozempic is approx $500/month out of pocket. Who the fuck has that much money, but not the willpower to join a gym and eat better?
Lots of Americans. Obesity might effect the affluent at a lower rate than the poor but their rate of obesity has still gone up dramatically over the last few decades. Being good at earning money != being good at other things.
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> "Only yesterday, I saw a guy with lung cancer smoke. If everyone stopped smoking, there would be no more cancer, right?"
A friend has it, he's never smoked (so he says, and I've known him for 40 years). His wife did some research and came up with the figure 40 - 40% of people who have lung cancer have never smoked. Assuming they were telling the truth.
Let's not get into passive smoking though.
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Exactly. Great retort. I hate self-righteous food and fitness nazis.
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> Your anecdote is a moronic simplification of a complex topic you clearly know nothing about. You're welcome to judge them like an asshole, but by the same logic, I have the right to call you a clueless asshole. Do you feel like a big man for shitting on the fatties?
Even at this distance, I can hear the twang of a nerve being struck.
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> Metabolism is one of the most complex functions of the body and we don't know much about it. We're constantly learning new things.
Just to add, I have the opposite problem in that I have metabolism issues where I can eat insane amounts of calories and not gain weight. Right now I always am trying to eat more than I’m hungry for, probably around 3k+ calories per day and I’m old and moderately active certainly not some kind of professional athlete. My body fat is around 7-10% (it makes me look grotesque and bizarre) and I have a bmi of about 19 which is very close to underweight. When I was younger I used to make people v
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> Some bodies are eager to store every surplus calorie as fat, most aren't. Some people have reliable hunger signaling, some don't. There's a lot of genetic variation and biology is not deterministic.
[1]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/... [cdc.gov]
wow, that's a heck of a lot of genetic drift in not even 50 years. are you guys inbreeding too?
> I'll be sure to point out that you're a smug, clueless asshole.
yeah ... that's surely gonna help.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/hestat111-fig1.png?_=98238
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Here's the thing, some folks do the discipline and keep a healthy weight, but they are basically always feeling hunger. Some people don't feel it but some people are having to constantly fight sensation of hunger, with a respite of a little bit after a meal, and almost never feeling 'full'.
If we had something to tame the rather depressive experience of constantly denying one's hunger because you know in your mind that you got the nutrition and caloric intake you need, but your body wants to eat your way to
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> Here's the thing, some folks do the discipline and keep a healthy weight, but they are basically always feeling hunger. Some people don't feel it but some people are having to constantly fight sensation of hunger, with a respite of a little bit after a meal, and almost never feeling 'full'.
I wonder how much that hunger sensation problem is fed by bad or alternative diets that avoid meat-based proteins?
Not saying those diets are bad for you per se, but I could eat rice and leafy greens until it's coming out of my ears. It will never satiate me like eating meat does. As it always has, which is not an uncommon phenomenon.
I can say it's not the case for me and my family (Score:2)
>> Here's the thing, some folks do the discipline and keep a healthy weight, but they are basically always feeling hunger. Some people don't feel it but some people are having to constantly fight sensation of hunger, with a respite of a little bit after a meal, and almost never feeling 'full'.
> I wonder how much that hunger sensation problem is fed by bad or alternative diets that avoid meat-based proteins?
> Not saying those diets are bad for you per se, but I could eat rice and leafy greens until it's coming out of my ears. It will never satiate me like eating meat does. As it always has, which is not an uncommon phenomenon.
I've been on that page for 20 years....less fat than before, but still 30% bodyfat. Trust me, I've done it all, as have every member of my family. I've eaten so much meat, I'm starting to get sick of it. Beef and fish are super expensive these days and there's only so many ways you can cook chicken or pork before getting sick of it. I'm like Bubba Blue from Forrest Gump...only with pork/chicken instead of shrimp...pork chops, pork fillet, jerk pork, slow cooked pork, grilled pork, pork slow cooked in ch
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> Here's the thing, some folks do the discipline and keep a healthy weight, but they are basically always feeling hunger. Some people don't feel it but some people are having to constantly fight sensation of hunger, with a respite of a little bit after a meal, and almost never feeling 'full'.
> If we had something to tame the rather depressive experience of constantly denying one's hunger because you know in your mind that you got the nutrition and caloric intake you need, but your body wants to eat your way to obesity.
We do have something, it's called a healthy diet of real food.
People, you are always feeling hungry because you're eating food without nutrition. That's right, empty calories and your body is deficient and this is expressed as hunger.
People are overweight largely due to two main factors, poor food choices and over-eating, which are both based in self-indulgence. The reality is if one eats whole foods in reasonable amounts, weight gain never becomes and issue and people do not feel hungry all the time.
I'm a
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Screw you. Once you find yourself trapped by the fat your body FIGHTS back. So hey, your preaching about nutrition is great. But people who are already trapped in bodies deal with more than that. Some of us just want a little freakin help rather than being preached at and scolded. We KNOW this stuff idiot. We probably know it better than you. So your self-righteous preening isn't helping anybody.
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> Screw you. Once you find yourself trapped by the fat your body FIGHTS back. So hey, your preaching about nutrition is great. But people who are already trapped in bodies deal with more than that. Some of us just want a little freakin help rather than being preached at and scolded. We KNOW this stuff idiot. We probably know it better than you. So your self-righteous preening isn't helping anybody.
This 100%.
It's easy for thin people to be Body Nazis, declaring everyone overweight to be morally deficient. Their "just lose weight" mantra is an oversimplification based on ignorance and resentment. Both the food industry and our biology are working against us.
It's like saying "just stop smoking", "just stop being poor", "just stop being sick", etc. They're easy words to say , but difficult to implement.
Ignorance or willful ignorance? (Score:2)
> Don't buy the food, don't eat the food.
Are you ignorant or are you willfully ignorant?
[1]Food has literally been engineered to be addictive. [scientificamerican.com] Don't believe the scientists? How about about looking at [2]the food industry is responding by developing GLP-1 resistant food formulations. [bcmj.org] Given that [3]obesity in the US has tripled in the last 50 years [wikimedia.org], if you don't suspect something odd is happening then you aren't looking.
Look at the facts, instead of trusting your "gut instinct" which you "know" is right because it's not.
[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/food-can-be-literally-addictive-new-evidence-suggests/
[2] https://bcmj.org/editorials/will-big-food-outsmart-glp-1s
[3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obesity_in_the_United_States.svg
I thought... (Score:1)
... that was oil, not blood.
Did Anybody else (Score:2)
think of that skit from The Meaning of Liff where we really fat guy explodes after eating a huge meal (and an after-dinner mint)
Python (Monty)... (Score:2)
The bottom part of the E fell off on the copy I have
Just ask the crew of Artemis (Score:2)
Or the ISS
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> Just ask the crew of Artemis
And yes, shooting nutritionally enhanced people into orbit is slightly cheaper than paying American cartel prices for those weight-loss drugs.
Great! But Rossum only has enough for himself (Score:2)
How are we going to get enough Python blood for everyone else?
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They said pTOS was being produced by a specific type of gut bacteria, they only measured the levels in the blood.
Bacteria of course are very easy to "cultivate". Might even be possible to introduce that bacteria into the human gut so we can produce it ourselves.
Not as good as it looks (Score:2)
People who are morbidly obese are not feeling hungry all the time, they're dopamine addicts that like the feeling food gives them. They eat whether they're hungry or not. We already have an appetite suppressant - it's called dietary fiber. It makes you feel full. Doesn't stop the addicts. That's why that new weight loss shot works so well. It stops people from feeling happy from eating. So this is a nonsense invention that won't do anything.
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> People who are morbidly obese are not feeling hungry all the time, they're dopamine addicts that like the feeling food gives them. They eat whether they're hungry or not. We already have an appetite suppressant - it's called dietary fiber. It makes you feel full. Doesn't stop the addicts. That's why that new weight loss shot works so well. It stops people from feeling happy from eating. So this is a nonsense invention that won't do anything.
> go months or even years without eating -- all while maintaining a healthy heart and plenty of muscle mass.
If the new discovery can solve for that obvious problem in the GLP-1 drug epidemic, then it's far from a "nonsense" invention.
Perhaps Hollywood can avoid replacing their growing collection of unhealthy stick figures with AI, which will be ironically programmed to present the pre-Ozempic version on the big screen.
What a stroke of luck... (Score:2)
What a stroke of luck that pythons and humans are so very similar.
Its in the pee (Score:2)
"Necessary? Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine? No, but I do it anyway because it's sterile and I like the taste."
No thanks! (Score:2)
I'll stick to the GLP-1, thank you very much. I started taking it for Type 2 Diabetes and lost a lot more weight than i wanted to.
goat blood does the same (Score:2)
For the goat blood to work though, you get dropped off in the wilderness with only a water pot and a fire starter.
You have to track the goat through the bush for weeks, and when you find it, run it down and catch it, wrestle it to death, manually haul it back to camp and process it.
Pip install (Score:5, Funny)
pip install blood?
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> pip install blood?
Certainly not Java blood, unless we are talking the blood of the developers writing software or the black stuff that comes from grinding a few beans and adding liquid to them.
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And as a bonus, the test mice can now swallow a cat whole.