Apart from cosmetic problems, obesity carries many health risks with it. However, a hormone produced by fat could help you get thin again. Leptin is produced by fat cells to decrease appetite and increase fat burning. However, if you carry excess pounds long enough, leptin loses its effectiveness. Leptin resistance provides an additional barrier you must overcome for your health.
Energy Regulation
Though excess weight is easier to see, it is easier to understand leptin and related hormones in terms of energy. Food brings energy into your body, fat stores energy, and physical activity expends energy. When your body has plenty of energy stored in the form of fat, leptin levels in your blood rise, reducing energy intake by reducing appetite and decreasing energy storage by burning fat for energy.
Unfortunately, it is easy to ignore leptin-induced loss of appetite. You may eat for convenience, emotional reasons or out of habit.
Leptin Function
Leptin levels measure fat mass in your body. When body fat percentage is high, leptin levels are high. When body fat percentage is low, leptin levels are low. High leptin levels prevent you from feeling hunger by affecting the hypothalamus. Leptin also stimulates fat cells to release fat stores, increases your metabolism and core body temperature. Very high or low levels of leptin decrease reproductive function. Leptin also regulates the effectiveness of your immune system and blood vessels.
Leptin Resistance
When leptin levels are high over a long period of time, your body stops responding to leptin. This is a condition called leptin resistance. Leptin resistance is one of many breakdowns in hormonal regulation of energy that occurs due to obesity. Therapies to restore leptin sensitivity are an area of active research as no feasible therapies yet exist. Develop better eating and exercise habits to lose weight and restore leptin sensitivity.
Obesity and Disease
According to the National Institutes of Health, obese individuals are significantly more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, certain cancers, depression, arthritis and other health disorders. Medicine alone will not reduce the risk of these diseases; you must lose weight to reduce the risk.
Leptin resistance is not known to be directly caused by any disease. However, diseases such as hypothyroidism, a condition where your thyroid does not produce enough hormones for stimulating energy use, may lead to leptin resistance by contributing to obesity.
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