It is amazing how the little twists and turns of researchers can have such a profound impact on what we generally come to realize as “scientific truth.” Let me share a recent fascinating example of how this impacted one of the most powerful hormones in your body.
The Ob mouse is a strain of mouse that has a genetic mutation that makes it obese and unhealthy.
This changed when, in 1994, Jeffrey Friedman discovered that this mouse lacked a previously unknown hormone called leptin, and when it was injected with leptin it became thin, vibrant, and very healthy within weeks.
This did not last long. When people were tested for leptin, it was found that, unlike the Ob mouse, they did not lack leptin; on the contrary almost all overweight and obese people have excess leptin.
These people were “leptin resistant” and giving extra leptin did little good.
The financial disappointment was extreme and scientists working for pharmaceutical companies said that leptin wasn’t important anymore since they could not find a drug to control it, and therefore the industry couldn’t make money on it.
This illustrates two extremely unfortunate principles in modern medicine; only those therapies that will make lots of money (generally for the pharmaceutical industry or hospitals), ever get pursued and then taught to physicians (since most of medical education after medical school takes place by drug reps), and these therapies, almost by definition, will be unnatural.
This inhibition of extremely important knowledge is not only unfortunate, it is deadly, and is exemplified by how few people, including doctors, know anything about leptin, though I would consider it to be the most important chemical in your body that will determine your health and lifespan.
All overweight and obese people have excess LEPTIN
Each and every one of us is a combination of lives within lives.
Our health and life depends on how accurately instructions are conveyed to our cells so that they can act in harmony.
The communication takes place by hormones.
Many would say that genes and chromosomes are the most important molecules, however once born your genes pretty much just sit there; hormones tell them what to do.
The two most important hormones that deliver messages about energy and metabolism are insulin and leptin.
Metabolism can roughly be defined as the chemistry that turns food into life, and therefore insulin and leptin are critical to health and disease.
Insulin works mostly at the individual cell level, telling the vast majority of cells whether to burn or store fat or sugar and whether to utilize that energy for maintenance and repair or reproduction.
Leptin, on the other hand, controls the energy storage and utilization of the entire republic of cells allowing the body to communicate with the brain about how much energy (fat) the republic has stored, and whether it needs more, or should burn some off, and whether it is an advantageous time nutritionally-speaking for the republic –you– to reproduce or not.
All overweight and obese people have excess LEPTIN
Leptin is a very powerful and influential hormone produced by fat cells that has totally changed the way that science (real science, outside of medicine) looks at fat, nutrition, and metabolism in general.
Prior to leptin’s discovery, fat was viewed as strictly an ugly energy storage depot that most everyone was trying to get rid of.
Leptin, as far as science currently knows, is the most powerful regulator that tells your brain what to do about life’s two main biological goals: eating and reproduction.
I believe I could now make a very convincing and scientifically accurate statement that 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.
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.
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.
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 (the arcuate nucleus) to stop being hungry, to stop eating, to stop storing fat and to start burning some extra fat off.
Controlling hunger is a major (though not the only) way that leptin controls energy storage.
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.
This has really caught the attention of the scientific community.
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.
The importance of insulin in health and disease is becoming well-known.
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.
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 don’t 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 leptin’s 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.
Leptin will not only determine how much fat you have, but also where that fat is put.
Leptin plays a far more important role in your health than, for instance, cholesterol, yet how many doctors measure leptin levels in their patients, know their own level, even know that it can be easily measured, or even what it would mean?
Leptin appears to play a significant role in obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Could it perhaps affect the rate of aging itself?
Scientists who study the biology of aging are beginning to look at that question.
If every one of our ancestors had not succeeded in eating and reproducing we would not be here, and this paper would be moot. All of your morphological characteristics from your hair to your toenails are designed to help you succeed at those two activities.
Even so-called “paleolithic” diets, though undoubtedly far better than what is generally eaten today, were not necessarily designed by nature to help us live a long and healthy life but, at best, to maximize reproduction.
But there are clues as to how to live a long and healthy life.
It takes energy to make babies; lots of it. Energy was and always will be a coveted commodity.
Instead, it seems that virtually all living forms can “switch gears” and direct energy away from reproduction and towards mechanism that will allow it to “hunker down” for the long haul and thus be able to reproduce at a future more nutritionally opportune time.
It does this by up regulating maintenance and repair genes that increase production of intracellular antioxidant systems, heat shock proteins (that help maintain protein shape), and DNA repair enzymes.
Genetic studies in simple organisms have shown that that link is at least partially mediated by insulin (which in simple organisms also functions as a growth hormone), and that when insulin signals are kept low, indicating scarce energy availability, maximal lifespan can be extended— a lot; several hundred percent in worms and flies.
Glucose is an ancient fuel used even before there was oxygen in the atmosphere, for life can burn glucose without oxygen; it is an anaerobic fuel.
The primary source of energy stores in people by far is fat, as many unfortunately are all too aware of.
It has long been known that women with very little body fat, such as marathon runners, stop ovulating.
Metabolic rate and temperature has long been connected with longevity. Almost all mechanisms that extend lifespan in many different organisms result in lower temperature.
It should be noted that reduced thyroid levels in this case are not synonymous with hypothyroidism.
Anything will dissolve faster in hot water than cold water. Extra heat will dissolve, disrupt and disorganize.
Yet how many of you would put a brand of gasoline in your car that advertised that it would make your engine run hotter?
That will be determined at the quality of your leptin signaling.
If it is poor, if you are insulin and leptin resistant, your metabolism is unhealthy and high in what I call “metabolic friction”.
If your fasting blood serum level of leptin is elevated you are likely leptin resistant and you will not be healthy unless you correct it.
This is the subject of much research.
High blood glucose levels cause repeated surges in insulin, and this causes one’s cells to become “insulin-resistant” which leads to further high levels of insulin and diabetes.
I believe the same happens with leptin.
The only known way to reestablish proper leptin (and insulin) signaling is to prevent those surges, and the only known way to do that is via diet and supplements.
As such, these can have a more profound effect on your health than any other known modality of medical treatment.
When leptin signaling is restored, your brain can finally hear the message that perhaps should have been delivered decades ago; high leptin levels can now scream to your brain that you have too much fat and that you better start burning some off for your life is in danger.
Your brain will finally allow you access into your pantry that you have been storing your fat in. Your cells will be fed the food from that fat and they will be satisfied. They will not know whether that food came from your belly fat or from your mouth; nor will they care.
This also makes counting calories irrelevant, for the calories that you put into your mouth today are not necessarily what your cells will be eating; that will be determined primarily by leptin.
Since little sugar is stored, that sugar will be had by making you crave it, or by turning the protein in your muscle and bone into sugar.
A strategic diet that emphasizes good fats and avoids blood sugar spikes coupled with targeted supplements (as recommended in my Rosedale Diet and Dr. Mercola’s Take Control of Your Health), will enhance insulin and leptin sensitivity so that you can once again hear their music, allowing your life to be the symphony it was meant to be.
I am very grateful to Dr. Rosedale, as he is the one who broadened my perspectives in January 1995 to include the great importance of insulin; as you may know, my book Take Control of Your Health, which presents my entire dietary plan that has been proven to help thousands of people fight and prevent disease, optimize their weight, and more, is based on some of the insulin concepts that Dr. Rosedale discussed.
Now Dr. Rosedale is doing for leptin what he did for insulin nearly 15 years ago: bringing its extreme role in human health into the limelight for all the world to see and hear.
To sum up a complex process very simply, the hormones your fat cells produce impact how much you eat and how much fat you burn.
One of these hormones is leptin, and leptin sends signals that reduce hunger, increase fat burning and reduce fat storage.
If you are eating a diet that is high in sugar and grains — this is the same type of diet that will also increase inflammation in your body — as the sugar gets metabolized in fat cells, fat releases surges in leptin.
When you become leptin-resistant, your body can no longer hear the messages telling it to stop eating and burn fat — so it remains hungry and stores more fat.
Leptin-resistance also causes an increase in visceral fat, sending you on a vicious cycle of hunger, fat storage and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and more.
Again, you become both insulin and leptin resistant by eating the typical American diet full of sugar, refined grains, processed foods and not a whole lot else.
I strongly encourage you to read through the above article in its entirety, and pass it along to your friends and loved ones as well.
Gaining a thorough understanding of this under-appreciated hormone will make it easier for you to lose weight and stay healthy, all by making simple changes to your diet.
Leptin will not only determine how much fat you have, but also where that fat is put.
I never had any problems with my weight until I was about 23 years old. Never fluctuated in any way at all.
Then, other things started to go wrong which the doctors blamed on my extreme dieting. Finally I was referred to a good consultant who eventually got me diagnosed with a pituitry tumour (Cushings syndrome) and I finally learned the unbelieveable effect that hormones can have on ones body. I was overproducing cortisol and prolactin and under producing Anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) to name but a few. One operation and the weight dissappeared. Now 22 years later I have had 9 pregnancies but only one baby. Everytime I have a miscarrarraige my weight alternatively goes up or goes down. I was 11 stone 2lbs when I got pregnant on my only full term pregnancy. 13st 2 on the day I had her and 13st9 coming home 1 week later after eating normally.
My purpose for telling this story is to make people understand that it is not ALWAYS overeating and underexercising. To this day, I still get told by “experts” to cut callories and excercise more.
Just curious, TRICIAMC, why list your weight in stones (especially when mixed with pounds)? Why not just give weight in pounds since very few people know what 1 stone converts to? This is a completely outdated weight measurement.
And for those that don’t know, 1 stone = 14lbs or 6[.]35kg.
As for being told to cut calories and exercise, this holds trueEXCEPT when there is some type of underlying problem. It doesn’t make the advice wrong, it merely means that you had underlying issues nullifying what was otherwise good advice (advice made with the belief that all else was equal).
You raise a valid point about listing one’s weight in stones (used in UK and Ireland), but perhaps you could have made your point in an, ahem, more tactful way.
For pretty much anyone outside the UK and Ireland, the unit of measure (UOM), stone, is not familiar. We are forced to find a web site for UOM conversion to look up how much a stone is converted to (either kilograms and pounds [used in the U[.]S[.]]), which you thoughtfully did.
The underlying point, my dear fellow Mercola forum posters, is that people from all around the world are reading this forum–most are native English speakers, but many are not–meaning that English is a second, third, or fourth language for them. So, to address the needs and sensibilities of all of the Mercola forum readers, I encourage those who post to this forum to think carefully about what they say, and HOW they say it. My advice is compose your message in a separate text editor, EDIT your own message, copy it to the forum “Post your comment or subcomment” box, and THEN click the “Submit” button.
As a long-time technical writer/editor, I can tell you that the most useful advice I can offer ANYone who submits posts in an online forum setting is to READ, RE-READ, and RE-READ AGAIN your message before clicking the “Submit” button. You would be amazed at how many of your own errors in substance and style you can catch before you send your message out to the world.
John8o8, Don’t be so defensive–it’s just not necessary. Yes, not every reader of this forum is from the U[.]S[.]; however, many come a number of countries OTHER than the UK and Ireland. Let’s keep our perspective on a broad and open scale as a citizen of the World, not just from one’s own nationality/country. By not being so limited in our own perspective, we all can open our minds and be tolerant of other peoples’ perspectives.
PJHarvey — Not a bad diet, though not as strict as you could make it. 1500 calories per day is still a tad on the high side if you’re not performinging a good amount of exercise (you didn’t mention one way or the other, so I’m just mentioning it). As for a “cheat day” there’s no need to binge eat (which can serve to simply lose some of the ground you’ve made up over the course of the week). Simply eating 1 cheat meal (like pizza, for instance) on the cheat day is enough to reset leptin so you can continue to lose weight. This happens to work and I’ve seen bodybuilders become very lean on this same diet. Not having a cheat day is well known to stall results over a multi-month weight-loss program due to the leptin resistance.
Having said all that, the cleaner you eat during the week, the less of a cheat you need on the cheat day (with the opposite being as true). Good luck!
I tell you what I have learned however and it is this. The missing key is potassium and cutting out carbs usually means cutting out too much of this too! So I eat Rosedale now but I also eat raw green coconuts (and their juice) and bananas and also I add raw potato juice to my green drinks (cucumber and celery) which I try and have all through the day. I don’t take water to training now but instead I take a mix of coconut juice, prune juice and raw milk. My trainer thinks I am mad but then as soon as I started he said WOW; the only people I have every see do that many reps that fast in that form are marshal arts experts! Just yesterday he was showing me off to a guy who has been training Rugby players and he was actually worried when he saw what I was doing (after I had been keeping it high intensity for an hour) but I still finished off boxing three rounds!
OK DR. Mercola, so I am still overweight, but since I went on my island diet of bananas and coconuts (and raw potato juice) added to Rosedale’s fish and avacados I have finally started shrinking. I also have been getting sun everyday like you say and LOVE your advice, but seriously think that potassium is the real missing link. I know from Adele Davis’s research that it balances blood sugar (as well as making us happy!) so what about bananas and raw potatoes, and prune juice?
I think this article kind of begs the question, if first it was about insulin, now it’s about insulin and leptin, what other undiscovered pieces of the puzzle affect metabolism? Because metabolism is a complex puzzle indeed.
Regardless, I don’t think any discovery now or in the future will significantly alter what needs to be done to lose weight. Plenty of exercise, a modest drop in calories below maintenance level, and being sure not to enter into ‘starvation mode’ as pjharvey mentions in his post. And I’d say calorie quality is as important as calorie quantity. This is a time tested way to lose weight, which, unfortunately, often DOES require a period of calorie counting for most people as they begin to get an understanding of just how much food they’re putting into their bodies.
BTW, I haven’t read the Rosedale diet myself, but the reviews I found online seem to indicate it is a very low carb diet. Just as with Atkins, if you can’t eat starchy carbs it’s usually not too hard to keep your calories below maintenance level without doing any calorie counting.
No offense, but I think you missed the point of the article. He clearly said that calorie counting isn’t important to lose weight as long as you are correcting the metabolic disorders that led to the weight gain in the first place. He didn’t mention exercise at all; but here you are, saying that “plenty of exercise, [and] a modest drop in calories below maintenance level” is what is important. Your thinking is the conventional thinking that we know to largely be inaccurate.
Later on in your post, you mention how easy it is to keep yoru calories below maintenance when you remove starchy carbs. This begs the question: why does your body suddenly become less hungry when you remove carbs from your diet? Is it because of the lack of food options (doesn’t make much sense; wouldn’t your body just give you strong cravings for carbohydrates?), or is it because the lack of carbs makes your body actually able to access the energy locked up in your fat tissue?
Is there any evidence that leptin resistance can be overcome? I have been using variations of Dr[.] Mercola’s low carb diet for most of my life, but if I do not vigilantly override the urge for sugars at every turn, I succumb and regain weight, It doesn’t seem to matter how long I have been on a low-insulemic diet, combined with exercise and supplements including minerals and fish oil, the signalling and reception ptoblem doesn’t seem to stop. Whereas a person without insulin and leptin resistance may decide not to take that slice of chocolate cake and not think about it for a couple hours, people who suffer from that condition may say “no” yet have the question coming up every other second. Even after years of eating correctly.
I suspect there is a reason that 95% of people who diet (or change eating plans) regain the weight.
That’s a great questionunfortunately I don’t have a very good answer.
Part of the equation tends to be locked in the expression of our genes and what our individual bodies consider “normal”. For example, people who have been thin their entire lives, but gain weight as adults (Adult-Onset Obesity) tend to have an easier time losing weight than people who have been heavy since they were children (Juvenile-Onset Obesity).
The reason for this is that during our growth years our bodies tend to create a baseline “normal”. From that point forward, whatever the body has learned as “normal” is what the body forever tries to work toward. In the case of Juvenile-Onset Obesity, the state of obesity will be considered baseline normal and the body will fight against any change from this.
I suspect many conditions people find themselves in are based on adverse baseline normals that were established during growth years and this makes it VERY difficult to fight against later in life (since you’re trying to actually change what your body considers “normal”).
While discipline, supplements, and proper eating will play a roll and allow a person to force the issue, such forcing won’t be permanent and will last only so long as the person keeps up with the program. It seems more and more that there’s no way to change this baseline normal without actually being able to turn on or off the responsible genesand it’s going to be a very long time before I think science will have a handle on doing something like that properly without a host of unforeseen complications and side effects.
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