Drunk Mice Get the Munchies

Bio 1610-009

Dr. Michaela Gasdik-Stofer

March 17, 2017

                Getting the munchies is not only for people who get high, it is also a thing people get when drunk. A recent study tested on mice showed that “alcohol activated brain cells that control hunger” making us want food even if we do not need it. This test shows the movement in our brain cells that connect to hunger making us desire to eat more after we consume alcohol.

The experiment is based on our hypothalamus that send signals to our brain telling us to eat. The cells that are directly connected with hunger is an agouti-related protein (AgRP). When these proteins are active, we need to eat even though we do not have to. When we consume alcohol, it sends a signal to our brain cells telling us to obtain food.

This article interested me because they are getting the mice drunk in order to do their test. To do this, they insert alcohol into their stomachs by needle. During this three-day experiment, the mice did not starting overly eating until the second day of being drunk. One part of this I found very interesting was that to retrieve the data they had to slit the mouse brains open to see if any AgRP was activated.

I was also interested in reading this article because anytime I would hangout and drink with a few friends a few would always crave food even though we had just eaten not two hours before. I never knew why this would happen but after reading this article it kind of makes more sense. I also believe this article is relevant since this is a college class and most college student enjoy partying their first year. Which I would ask, does this tie in with “freshman fifteen” gaining fifteen pounds your freshman year?

Article Used: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/drunk-mice-get-the-munchies/#