GHRL and cancer: It is most likely due to the anorexia and decreased body weight, because weight loss is a potent stimulus to ghrelin secretion in humans and animals.36, 37 Increased hypothalamic inflammatory cytokines observed in these mice may underlie the resistance to appetite-stimulating effects of ghrelin, the situation similar to cachexia associated with cancer and other diseases.18, 25 In SAMP8 mice only, rikkunshito improved in part the adaptive feeding and body weight response, suggesting that the effects on survival were mostly independent of the orexigenic activity.