GeneralWhat is Leptin and Why is it Important?

Overweight or obesity has always been a problem of mankind and there has been a lot of opinions made in this context. Many people think that this cause due to a lack of will power or laziness. However, modern science just doesn’t believe in this. It says that there is a special hormone in our body that is responsible for all weight management. This hormone is called Leptin. Here are some points that will tell you what it is and why it is important. 

What is Leptin?

Leptin is a hormone, which is produced in the human body. It is predominantly made by adipose cells and enterocytes in the small intestine. It helps in regulating energy balance. The balance is done by cutting down the hunger and in turn diminishing the fat storage in adipocytes. So, it is a hormone that is produced by the fat cells of our body. It is because of the work that it does or the way it is produced, we often refer to it as the “satiety hormone” or the “starvation hormone.”Leptin primarily targets an area of the brain particularly, which is called the hypothalamus. It is also supposed to tell the brain that your body has enough of the fat stored in it and now you don’t need to eat. In this way, you can burn calories at a normal rate, without doing much. Not just this, but it also has many other functions related to fertility, immunity, and brain function. 

The main role of Leptin is to regulate the long term energy. This also includes the number of calories you eat and the amount of fat you store in your body. By the time, leptin system has evolved and it has helped in keeping away humans from starving or overeating. If both of these persist, we are not likely to survive in the natural environment. Leptin is very effective in keeping humans away from starving, but there is something broken in the mechanism and is supposed to prevent us from overeating.

Why Leptin is important?

As we have mentioned above, leptin is a hormone, produced by your body’s fat cells. The more fat these cells carry, the more leptin is produced. Now, if we talk about the importance of leptin, then it works great when it comes to weight management. It tells the brain what to do and what not to do, in the context of weight loss. It is carried by the bloodstream into your brain. After getting into the brain,  it sends a signal to the hypothalamus. This is the part of the brain that controls when you eat and what amount you eat.

Along with the above-mentioned functions, it is used by the fat cells. The fat cells use it to tell or inform your brain about the amount of body fat that you carry. The equation here is very simple. If you have high levels of leptin in your body, it will tell your brain that you have a lot of fat stored in different parts of your body. On the other hand, the low leptin levels inform your brain that fat storage in your body is really low, and therefore, you need to eat.

You must have heard the fact that starving has done no good to anyone. This fact will become more clear here. After you have had a proper meal, your body fat grows up and leads to the growth of your leptin levels too. As a consequence, you eat less and burn more calories. On the opposite side, when you are not eating, your body fat goes down and your leptin levels drop. As soon as the level of leptin lowers, you start eating more and burn fewer calories.

Now, there is an entire system involved in this process and the system is known as a negative feedback loop. We have got a control mechanism for different physiological functions, such as breathing, body temperature, and blood pressure. This is system is very similar to it.

You will be surprised to know that Leptin was discovered in the year 1994 and before that the scientists and doctors didn’t know about it. It was supposed to bring improvisation in this whole weight management cycle, which could not be seen getting any closer. Some facts that we can trust also tells us about the changes that our body faces if we lack or increase the Leptin contain.

According to some studies, leptin levels that are chronically elevated are the cause of disorders like obesity, overeating, and inflammation-related diseases, including hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and heart disease.

Again, there is no establishment of any cause-and-effect. So, the other word that comes in this frame is Leptin resistance. Other theories that have been conducted in this regard says that leptin resistance may lead to hardening of the arteries, but again, we could not completely trust these theories, as they are controversial.

Also, one more point that you should note here is that everybody is not the same and this response in different ways in different situations.

About leptin supplements

You will be surprised to know that most of the supplements that are sold in the market in the name of leptin supplements don’t contain the hormone in them. We should not forget that we have a lot of things with us that could actually reduce our weight and are nutritional as well. So, these supplements are stuffed from such ingredients only. Several supplements are labeled as “leptin pills”. These pills don’t have leptin in them, but contain a mix of various nutrients that are marketed in name of reducing inflammation. Therefore, they increase leptin sensitivity. One of the famous pill consumed is leptitox. You can check out its review if you seem interested.

Some of the supplements contain ingredients like alpha-lipoic acid and fish oil. Some of them also contain green tea extract, soluble fiber, or conjugated linoleic acid that are meant for the reduction of weight. A lot of research has been done on these weight loss supplements and it has been found that they result in Leptin resistance and the appetite becomes unclear due to them. There are a lot of natural ingredients too, that are supposed to be rich in Leptin are tasted. For now, we could only say this that a lot of research is yet needed to make sure whether you need these supplements or not.

The only thing that comes out as a conclusion in this entire discussion is that the supplements that we find in the market are good for nothing. At least they are not doing the thing that they claim to do. You will be surprised to know the studies about the role of leptin produced in our body too is not clear. After its discovery, it was supposed to help in improvising the weight loss system, but not much is clear until now. If you want to talk only about the weight loss, then we would suggest you do it naturally and not by having a supplement that has no correct ingredient in it. Do such activities and eat such food that increases your metabolism and hence can help you in reducing your weight.

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