DR. ALFRED FROHLICH from the University of Vienna first began to unravel the neuro-hormonal basis of obesity in 1890; he described a young boy with the sudden onset of obesity who was eventually diagnosed with a lesion in the hypothalamus area of the brain. It would be later confirmed that hypothalamic damage resulted in intractable weight gain in humans.11 This established the hypothalamic region as a key regulator of energy balance, and was also a vital clue that obesity is a hormonal imbalance.
