Melanotan Promises to Make You Tan, AND Thin!
By Michele Hickford

A VERY happy accident

In the mid-’80s a research team at the sun-drenched University of Arizona was working on skin cancer prevention. Instead of slathering sun blocks on the outside, the researchers were searching for protection from the inside out, to enhance the body’s own ability to generate a safe, slow tan. Team Arizona, which included endocrinologist Mac Hadley, dermatologist Norman Levine, and pharmacology research Robert Dorr discovered a synthetic hormone a thousand times stronger than the body’s own tanning triggers. They called it Melanotan I and later Melanotan II (MT-II) and began testing it on a group of men.

The research team hoped to create a safe, protective tan for users without damaging sunlight. But the golden tan wasn’t the only reason the research subjects were glowing.

According to Dr. Dorr, “Even at the very low starting dose of Melanotan II, every subject had an erection.” You mean like, constantly?

Rather than simple vascular stimulation, like Viagra, Melanotan apparently directly stimulates the hypothalamus in the brain. So instead of tackling the mechanics of impotence, Melanotan could potentially jump-start desire. And not just in men. On Melanotan, female lab rodents tripled their levels of courtship behavior. (Not sure what that would be for rodents, but I assume it has nothing to do with pedicures, hair-tossing or flirtatious text messages.)

But it gets even better.

“After about 10 days of taking Melanotan II, I lost about 10 pounds,” said Hadley, who joined the clinical trial after the testers began reporting promising results.

The Melanotan molecule also targets an appetite-suppression receptor in the body which “causes short term feelings of fullness or nausea,” according to Dorr, “You could theoretically get tanned and have a lot of erectile activity and you might actually start to lose weight.” Wowser! I don’t know which one I want first!
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