Orexin

A bulimic's or anorexic's I-function may also be positively affected by drugs which can change its neuro-chemical environment. In this chemical fashion relief may be found for affected individuals. Numerous hormones, cortisol, orexin A, orexin B, luteinizing hormone, luteinizing-hormone-releasing factor, and follicle-stimulating hormone, have been linked to these eating disorders. These hormones are all present in healthy people, while in those affected with an eating disorder the levels or distributions are abnormal. The brain hormone, …

…two receptors produced in the lateral hypothalamus--a region of the brain thought to control appetite. They bathed the receptors in ground-up brain tissues and eventually isolated two ligands--hormones that they christened orexin A and orexin B, after the Greek word orexis, meaning appetite. Even so, drugs that mimic orexin might help patients with anorexia or other wasting syndromes by increasing hunger. And those that block orexins might help patients struggling with obesity and binge eating.