Naturopathic treatment is a therapy which can effectively control the hunger and thirst in the human body.
Hunger and thirst are sensations that represent homeostatic mechanisms, which maintain constancy in the internal environment.
The sensations arise from diffuse internal stimuli that occur when food or water are needed by the body.
Hunger sensations coincide with strong peristaltic contractions of the stomach.
However, hunger is more than a stomach sensation, since removal of the stomach or severance of sensory nerves supplying it will not abolish other signs of hunger which include increased body movements, weakness, fatigue, headache, and irritability.
An animal soon learns that these symptoms are relieved by the ingestion of food.
After this is learned, a more complex conditioned behavior called appetite develops - a desire for food that is not necessarily associated with true hunger.
In contrast to hunger, appetite is pleasant and can be stimulated by smell, sight, or even the thought of food.
Obesity can result if appetite is excessively dissociated from the body's actual needs.
Normally, the ingestion of food and the expenditure of energy derived from it are balanced, so that body weight remains fairly constant..
This regulation involves the hypothalamus region of the brain.
Animal experiments show that destruction of the ventromedial hypothalamus, or the satiety center, results in excessive eating and obesity, while destruction of the lateral hypothalamus contains receptors sensitive to changes in the blood glucose level and brain temperature.
The VMH responds to high blood glucose levels and increased brain temperature, and the LH responds to the opposite situations.