Okay, so yesterday I ranted about ghrelin and importance of enough sleep to make sure you ghrelin stays manageable. Ghrelin is what lets you know that you are hungry. Leptin is opposing force of ghrelin. Sort of like a little brother, it is always in competition with ghrelin. But leptin does oh so much more. Years back I recall a study being done with mice that showed those mice who didn't produce enough leptin were obese, and almost overnight people were trying to figure out how to gives themselves some more to help with weight loss. Here's what we are learning about leptin. Leptin is a hormone produced in our fat cells (adipose) that signals the brain that we are satisfied. Leptin tries to help us maintain a leaner figure. So, the more fat cells we have, theoretically the more leptin we are producing and thus the more satisfied we should feel. Leptin also sends out a signal when we are eating. So ghrelin tells us we are hungry, we eat something, and leptin tells us we are satisfied. Seems simple enough. The problem comes when we eat too frequently and/or we have too much fat tissue. It seems that putting out large amounts of leptin would help us to lose weight because we would constantly be telling that part of the brain that we are satified - this is why everyone was so excited when the research first came out with those obese mice. The problem is that the satiety center of the brain gets tired of listening to leptin yelling at it, and it starts to desensitize. I liken this to when my boys are screaming/whining about pretty much anything and I start to tune them out. This doesn't stop the boys from doing it, and it doesn't stop leptin from doing it either but it does make it harder to sense that we are satisfied. So you would think we could just overcome this by continuing to send the brain more signals. But our body is a wonderfully, mysterious thing. While leptin is screaming at our brain, it's also working to tell our pancreas that we don't need quite so much insulin. After all, we need insulin to process any carbohydrate we just ate, and if we're telling the brain that we are satified, then theoretically there won't be more carbs coming in and thus there won't be a need for more insulin. You would think this is harmless, however constantly telling our pancreas that we don't need more insulin just keeps it alert. It would be like putting a pot on the stove instead of keeping it in the cupboard - it's ready to be used even though you haven't called upon it to heat something yet. So when food does enter our system and needs insulin to allow for utilization of all that nice energy, our pancreas has been sitting there, chomping at the bit - ready for action! At a moments notice, it overwhelms the system with a push of insulin in an attempt to drive that nice sugar (glucose from carbohydrate) into our cells. Too bad all that fatty tissue around our bellies makes it harder for insulin to get the job done. Ah well, we'll just produce some more insulin (hyperinsulinemia) to bring down our blood sugar (hyperglycemia) all the while telling leptin to respond more because we are really satisfied but having trouble sensing it.
Phew, I'm out of breath just thinking about it. Our body really is miraculous in the ways it tries to keep us on track. Too bad we are so pig-headed that we constantly feel the need to work against it. So what does all this mumbo jumbo above mean? In order for us to improve the sensitivity of our brain, we are going to have to cut down on some of that fatty tissue we carry around, and stop constantly encouraging our pancreas to pump out more insulin... in other words, how about a little exercise and maybe no snacking between meals?? Seriously, everytime you put food in your system you are activating this pathway - don't you think it could use a little down-time between meals? And... stop looking for that quick fix. I mean really, if you're looking for a quick way to satisfy that part of the brain that leptin works with, I've heard a little crack/cocaine will do the trick too (note, I do not advise use of crack/cocaine for dieting purposes, just maybe for a hard day at work - hahahaha, okay not for that either).
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