Finally: Some experts question whether too much is spent on AIDS

After years of being the most top-of-mind health crisis on the planet, it seems that the days of AIDS as a rallying cry and a cause celeb could be drawing to a close. Finally, researchers and medical professionals are stepping up and pointing out what's been obvious for more than a decade: that the AIDS "crisis" is consuming an absurdly large portion of medical funding and that - gasp! - that money might be better spent fighting more widespread diseases.

Well it's about time.

Because of its connection to the gay community, AIDS has always been a sacred topic in the public forum. It's so embedded itself in the public consciousness that was the subject of an Oscar-winning movie ("Philadelphia") and even had its own global benefit concerts (LiveAIDS). Can you imagine the uproar if anyone in the 90s had dared to question the lopsided spending on AIDS? Whoever made such a statement would've been renounced or vilified as if they were a Holocaust denier or a member of the KKK.

But now many respected experts are looking at the cold, hard facts.

Roger England of the medical think tank the Health Systems Workshop says the "global HIV industry" has become a nearly unstoppable force in healthcare. "We have created a monster with too many vesting interests and reputations at stake … and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fashion accessory," England wrote in a recent article for the British Medical Journal.

England even suggests that the UNAIDS, the U.N. agency which "leads the fight" against the disease (whatever that means … I never trust the U.N.) should be disbanded, and that its $200 million annual budget should be re-directed toward the more widespread and deadlier issue of pneumonia.

Jeremy Shiffman, a health spending researcher from Syracuse University agrees that "AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies."

Amen to that. For years other health scourges have caused the deaths of far more people worldwide than AIDS ever will - heart disease and cancer come to mind - but yet the fight against these killers doesn't receive a fraction of the funding or publicity that's been afforded to AIDS. In fact, 80 percent of American overseas aid for health issue is directed at AIDS - and we send billions of dollars in aid overseas every year.

Indeed, outside of Africa, the spread of AIDS has largely been tamped down. And there's a laundry list of AIDS drugs that are available that have turned the disease from an absolute death sentence with no cure to a manageable, chronic illness.

Given the fact that treatment has come so incredibly far in just a generation, it's fair to say that the massive blitz of money and publicity really did help to curb the deadly disease. But now it's time to move on.

Gut check: Obesity cure could be right in your tummy

Guess where scientists discovered a fatty substance that helps signal the brain that it's time to stop eating? Yup: right in the gut. Researchers are hoping that this ironic little find could help to battle obesity. Hey, like the say … sometimes the answer to your problems is right in front of you!

The fatty substance is a group of hormones that are known as "NAPEs" (because their full scientific name is the nearly unpronounceable "N-acylphosphatidylethanolamines"), which target the hypothalamus - the part of the brain that controls thirst, appetite, and metabolic processes.

When tested in rats over five days, NAPE-injected rats reduced their food intake by a third, and dropped about a quarter of their body weight. Researchers are hopeful that the discovery could ultimately lead to more effective weight control drugs for people.

I suppose that'll have to do for now, since we're still waiting on a drug that enhances self-control…