Woman 2 Woman - Weight Watch

Posted on

13 June 2016

| Last updated on 17 August 2016

Weight Watch

Is the Mother earth overburdened? Time for hormones to kick in…. I was horrified to read recently that global population is estimated to weigh 287 million tons, of which 17 million tons is due to people being overweight! Unfortunately, UAE ranks as the fifth fattest nation in the world, according to a recent study published by a BMC Public Health journal. And ranks behind the US, Kuwait, Qatar. Bahrain. Is that something to be proud of? All conversations abound with problems of excess weight especially the ‘Dubai stone’ gained thanks to the overabundance of food and total lack of exercise in this part of the world. One endlessly hears of the struggles to lose weight despite the myriad diets, lotions, potions, detoxes and even the surgeon’s knife. But how many of us have heard of the hormonal control of fat metabolism in the humans. We are a society of women hugely culturally preoccupied with body image and weight gain in which any fat is conceived to be ‘bad’.

But the truth is that the body cannot survive without fat and has an intricate control led by the hormone ‘Leptin’ acting opposite to ‘Insulin’ in maintaining the body fat stores. Interestingly, the Leptin gene was first identified in mice with genetic obesity (ob/ob) mice. The protein Leptin made by these genes primarily in fat tissue was able to determine the size of the fat depot back to the areas of the brain which controls appetite and energy expenditure (parts of the hypothalamus). So really it’s this hormone Leptin that has been shown to affect neuronal circuits in the brain that regulate feeding and metabolism. More medical jargon, but worth understanding. By acting on its receptors in several brain (hypothalamic) centers it modulates a number of neuropeptides which are involved in control of feeding which go by fancy names like melanocyte concentrating hormone (MCH that stimulates feeding), cholecystokinin (CCK) and glucagon-like peptide-l (7—36) amide (GLP-1) that inhibits feeding. Leptin also down-regulates neuropeptide Y, an extremely potent peptide which is known to increase food intake Even more intriguing in this hormonal saga is the fact that a “Classical feedback loop” exists between insulin and leptin. Leptin inhibits insulin secretion via neural pathways and also by acting directly on insulin-producing cells. So now does that ring a bell? Most women have heard about the link between obesity and diabetes.

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To make it even more complicated is the fact that a ‘leptin-receptor deficiency’ could also exist leading to a ‘leptin resistance’ state quite like the insulin resistance state seen in obese patients with polycystic ovarian disease and maturity onset diabetes. Such resistance would account for the continuing tendency of obese people to ‘overeat’ in the face of high leptin levels. In an opposite manner, Leptin also provides a mechanism to explain amenorrhea (the lack of ovulation and periods) in very thin females. It has been shown to modulate normal reproductive function in both animals and humans (ob/ob female mice and leptin-deficient women are infertile) and to interact with the hypothalamo-pituitary—gonadal axis that makes the hormones necessary to get your estrogen –progesterone going. The recent advances in the understanding of the genetics of obesity and in appetite regulation at the molecular level may hold the key to developing future therapies. So what does a plump woman do, who is stuck in the rut of PCOS, infertility, obesity and impending diabetes with its hundred odd complications? My two bit advice on this will be to treat insulin resistance by vigorous exercise, listen to ‘the mind’ , only eat when genuinely hungry and stop eating when the mind tells you to. We are stuck in this world of food oversupply and stuffing our faces because we’ve been brought up to eat when its meal times and celebrations but did God really make to eat four meals a day, day after day? I beg to differ!