Struggling with Fat Loss?? What Exactly is Leptin? Leptin is a very powerful and influential hormone produced by fat cells that has totally changed the way that science looks at fat, nutrition, and metabolism in general. Prior to leptins discovery, fat was viewed as strictly an ugly energy storage depot that most everyone was trying to get rid of. After it was discovered that fat produced the hormone leptin (and subsequently it was discovered that fat produced other very significant hormones), fat became an endocrine organ like the ovaries, pancreas and pituitary, influencing the rest of the body and, in particular, the brain. Leptin, as far as science currently knows, is the most powerful regulator that tells your brain what to do about lifes two main biological goals: eating and reproduction. Your fat, by way of leptin, tells your brain whether you should be hungry, eat and make more fat, whether you should reproduce and make babies, or (partly by controlling insulin) whether to hunker down and work overtime to maintain and repair yourself. I believe I could now make a very convincing and scientifically accurate statement that rather than your brain being in control of the rest of your body, your brain is, in fact, subservient to your fat -- and leptin. In short, leptin is the way that your fat stores speak to your brain to let your brain know how much energy is available and, very importantly, what to do with it. Therefore, leptin may be on top of the food chain in metabolic importance and relevance to disease. How Leptin Regulates Your Weight It has been known for many years that fat stores are highly regulated. It appeared that when one tried to lose weight the body would try to gain it back. This commonly results in yo-yo dieting and in scientific circles one talks about the set point of weight. It has long been thought that there must be a hormone that determines this. Science points now to leptin as being that hormone. In our ancestral history, it was advantageous to store some fat to call upon during times of famine. However, it was equally disadvantageous to be too fat. For most of our evolutionary history, it was necessary to run, to obtain prey and perhaps most importantly, to avoid being prey. If a lion was chasing a group of people it would most likely catch and eliminate from the gene pool the slowest runner and the one who could not make it up the tree -- the fattest one. Thus, fat storage had to be highly regulated and this is done, as is any regulation, through hormones, the most significant being leptin. If a person is getting too fat, the extra fat produces more leptin which is supposed to tell the brain that there is too much fat stored, more should not be stored, and the excess should be burned. Signals are therefore sent to an area of the brain in the hypothalamus to stop being hungry, to stop eating, to stop storing fat and to start burning some extra fat off. Controlling hunger is a major way that leptin controls energy storage. Hunger is a very powerful, ancient, and deep-seated drive that, if stimulated long enough, will make you eat and store more energy. Asking somebody to not eat, to voluntarily restrict calories even though they are hungry, is asking the near impossible. The only way to eat less in the long-term is to not be hungry, and the only way to do this is to control the hormones that regulate hunger, the primary one being leptin. How Leptin Resistance Leads to Disease More recently, it has been found that leptin not only changes brain chemistry, but can also rewire the very important areas of the brain that control hunger and metabolism. Im not aware of any other chemical in the body that has been shown to accomplish this mind bending event. Further studies have now shown that leptin, or more correctly the inability of the body to properly hear leptin’s signals, in other words leptin resistance, plays significant if not primary roles in heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, reproductive disorders, and perhaps the rate of aging itself. It helps to control the brain areas that regulate thyroid levels and the sympathetic nervous system which also has huge impacts on blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and aging. Leptins stimulatory effect on the sympathetic nervous system also helps determine the adrenal stress response including cortisol levels. Leptin May Be Even More Critical Than Insulin The importance of insulin in health and disease is becoming well-known. Aside from its obvious role in diabetes, it plays a very significant role in hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. I was one of the first to speak publicly to doctors about insulin’s critical role in health well over a decade ago (see the transcribed talk Insulin and its Metabolic Effects) and I am even more convinced now. However leptin may even supersede insulin in importance, for new research is revealing that in the long run glucose and therefore insulin levels may be largely determined by leptin. It had been previously believed that the insulin sensitivity of muscle and fat tissues were the most important factor in determining whether one would become diabetic or not. Elegant new studies are showing that the brain and liver are most important in regulating a person’s blood sugar levels especially in type 2 or insulin resistant diabetes. It should be noted again that leptin plays a vital role in regulating your brain’s hypothalamic activity which in turn regulates much of a person’s autonomic functions; those functions that you dont necessarily think about but which determines much of your life (and health) such as body temperature, heart rate, hunger, the stress response, fat burning or storage, reproductive behavior, and newly discovered roles in bone growth and blood sugar levels. Another very recent study reveals leptins importance in directly regulating how much sugar that the liver manufactures via gluconeogenesis. Many chronic diseases are now linked to excess inflammation such as heart disease and diabetes. High leptin levels are very pro-inflammatory, and leptin also helps to mediate the manufacture of other very potent inflammatory chemicals from fat cells that also play a significant role in the progression of heart disease and diabetes. It has long been known that obesity greatly increased risk for many chronic diseases including heart disease and diabetes, but no one really knew why. Leptin appears to be the missing link.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 12:56:55 +0000
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