PHOENIX - Have you ever been so hungry that you're angry? We're talking about "get out of my way, don't touch me, don't talk to me until I eat something" mad. A physician with Banner Hospitals says there may be more to it than you think.
Dr. Christine Lovato is a bariatric surgeon who treats patients who can't lose weight, and works out of Banner University Medical Center Phoenix. She says there may be a science to that "hangry" feeling.
"It's not a word that doctors use often, but sometimes I wonder if it should be," Lovato said.
It is however, a word that made it into the dictionary and onto the doctor's radar.
Often they're telling me they've been told it's in their head all of the time and I say, 'Well it is!'" Lovato said. "Because your hypothalamus is the control center for all of that."
Lovato says your hormones make you feel hungry.
"Hunger is mediated by hormones released by small intestines in response to food or lack of food," she said. "That is what your metabolism is."
And Dr. Lovato says she believes hormonal disturbances may be fueling the "hangry" feeling.
"We just haven't determined the neurotransmitters in the brain that are downstream of that," she said.
And this expert's best advice for getting rid of the "hanger" is to redefine your relationship with food -- starting with three meals a day.
"Try to eat meals that are high in protein," Dr. Lovato said. "Try to avoid high carbs, high sugars, things that will spike the blood sugar and make it drop to a normal level more rapidly. That might help those feelings of 'hangriness.'"
So we can verify that those feelings of "hanger" are real, and Dr. Lovato has tips to beat them.
"If you can get in touch with those feelings in your body and not allow it to panic you when you feel that feeling of hunger, that's probably the most important place to start," she said.
So the next time you start to have an out-of-body experience, remember, it all may be in your head.
Dr. Lovato says while "hangry" is not an official medical term yet, she says it's not out of the question to see it there someday. She adds there's still a lot of research to be done to figure out the main causes.