Leptin: What It Is, and Why It May Be the Most Powerful "Tool" Against Diabetes

It's well known that obesity and diabetes often go hand-in-hand. Over 60 million Americans are obese, a condition that makes it 20 to 40 times more likely that you'll develop diabetes than someone of a healthy weight, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Even being overweight (as opposed to obese) increases your risk of type 2 diabetes seven-fold.

Still, while epidemic numbers of Americans--nearly 20 million--have diabetes, it is not known why some obese people develop diabetes, while others never do.

A Hormone Called Leptin

The protein hormone leptin--which comes from the Greek word for "thin," leptos--may hold the key to unlocking some of this mystery. Derived from fat cells, defects in leptin signaling may lead to obesity, overeating and less energy expenditure.

According to metabolic specialist Ron Rosedale, M.D.:

"Leptin is the way that your fat stores speak to your brain to let your brain know how much energy is available and, very importantly, what to do with it. Studies have shown that leptin plays significant, if not primary, roles in heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, reproductive disorders, and perhaps the rate of aging itself."

Further, a study on mice published in Cell Metabolism has revealed that leptin plays a role in regulating blood sugar, which it does via two brain-body pathways:

One that controls appetite and fat storage

One that tells the liver what to do with its glucose reserves

If the first pathway (the one involving appetite and fat storage) is disrupted, obesity is expected, which raises the risk of diabetes. However, the study found that both pathways may have to be disrupted in order for the body to lose control of insulin and blood sugar levels and develop diabetes.

"Taken together, our findings show there's more to the obesity-diabetes link than the classic thinking that if you eat too much sugar, you'll get fat and get diabetes and that if you don't get diabetes, it's only because you're making more insulin to keep up with the sugar," says senior author Martin G. Myers, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Michigan Medical School. "There's something else contributing. Now the challenge is to find out what that is."

Leptin's Link to Fat and Diabetes

"If a person is getting too fat, the extra fat produces more leptin, which is supposed to tell an area of the brain in the hypothalamus that there is too much fat stored, more should not be stored, and the excess burned," Rosedale says.

"Therefore, signals are sent to stop being hungry, to stop eating, to stop storing fat and to start burning some extra fat off. More recently, it has been found that leptin not only changes brain chemistry, but can also "rewire" these very important areas of the brain that control hunger and metabolism," he continues.

In fact, it is also possible to become leptin-resistant. How this process occurs is the focus of much research, but Rosedale suggests that leptin-resistance is similar to insulin-resistance in that it occurs after being overexposed to high levels of the hormone. At this point, the body no longer responds to the hormone, much like you no longer notice a bad odor after being exposed to it for a while, Rosedale explained.

Much like high blood sugar levels result in surges in insulin, sugar metabolized in fat cells causes the fat to release surges in leptin. Over time, leptin-resistance may develop.

Can Leptin be Used to Help Lose Weight or Prevent Diabetes?

As it stands, leptin is still a mysterious hormone that researchers are trying to sort out. To put it simply, though, overweight people tend to have very low levels of leptin in their systems (they may have disruptions in leptin signaling or they may be leptin-resistant, for instance). And, studies have found that feeding leptin to overweight mice causes them to lose weight. This effect was not observed in humans, however.

For now, the best way to reduce your chances of diabetes and obesity (and other diseases like heart disease and accelerated aging), according to Rosedale, is to avoid surges in leptin (which can eventually make you leptin-resistant).

Eating the typical American diet, full of refined sugars and other processed foods, is a surefire way to cause surges in leptin. Focusing your diet on simple, mostly unprocessed foods like vegetables is currently the best way to reduce surges in leptin and leptin-resistance, Rosedale says.

So for now there is no magic leptin injection or pill to make you lose weight and prevent diabetes. The good old advice of eating a healthy diet, though, will help to keep your leptin levels normal, which is key to a healthy weight and life.

The Basics on Diabetes

Every day, in the United States, more than 2000 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed. Type II diabetes, the most prevalent form of diabetes worldwide, often shows few or even no symptoms!

After eating, food is broken down into what is known as glucose, a sugar carried by the blood to cells throughout the body. Using a hormone known as insulin, made in the pancreas, cells process glucose into energy.

Because cells in the muscles, liver, and fat do not use insulin properly in the body of a person with type II diabetes, they have problems converting food into energy. Eventually, the pancreas cannot make enough insulin for the body's needs. The amount of glucose in the body increases, and the cells are starved of energy.

This starvation of the cells, paired with the high blood glucose level can damage nerves and blood vessels. This leads to complications such as kidney disease, nerve problems, blindness, and heart ailments.

There are a lot of factors that can help to attribute to diabetes cases - lifestyle, environment, heredity - and those who are at risk should be screened regularly to prevent diabetes. Those that are already diagnosed with diabetes should aim to keep their glucose level under control.

But how do you know if you have type II diabetes? After all, it has few symptoms, often no symptoms in some patients. However, if you notice an increased thirst or hunger, a change in weight, or blurred vision, getting tested for type II diabetes is necessary, as only your doctor will be able to help you find the treatment steps necessary to being able to manage your life with diabetes.

Simple changes such as eating right, managing your weight, and keeping your blood sugar level under control may be enough. However, you doctor may prescribe diabetes-regulating medications to assist you in controlling your type II diabetes.

Diabetes is a serious ailment with extreme consequences if it isn't treated properly. But if you follow your doctor's advice and maintain both your lifestyle and blood sugar levels, you can help to prevent the more serious consequences from occurring.

This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to treat, diagnose or prevent any ailment or disease. See your physician for proper diagnosis and treatment.

Diabetes – What You REALLY Need to Know

The incidence of diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the western world. Perhaps it is time to take stock of our lifestyle and to understand the dangers this disease presents.

Put simply, diabetes is the inability of the body to process sugars and starches properly. When we eat or drink our pancreas produces a hormone called insulin. Without sufficient insulin, body cells are unable to use glucose properly and blood levels of glucose rise, producing hyperglycemia, the major symptom of diabetes.

Excess levels of glucose and ketones (chemicals produced by the liver from fatty acids) can result in weakness, dizziness, and unconsciousness. Too little glucose (hypoglycemia) can produce similar symptoms. Both conditions are temporary and reversible.

Symptoms are thirst (polydipsia), increased urination, (polyuria), weight loss, constipation, tiredness, lack of energy, tingling or pins and needles in the hands or feet, blurred vision and increased infections.

There are three main types of diabetes:

1. Type 1 diabetes – no insulin is produced. Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus affects 10% of diabetics. Generally develops in children and young adults and affects more males than females. Sometimes called juvenile-onset diabetes, it occurs when a person’s body cannot make the hormone insulin. Without insulin, the body cannot use the carbohydrates and sugars in food properly.

2. Type 2 diabetes - insulin is produced but the body becomes resistant to it. Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus affects people who are more than 40 years old and overweight or obese. Sometimes called mild diabetes but it is just as serious as type 1 diabetes. The symptoms are similar to type 1 but may build up slowly. Diabetes specialists are very concerned at the rise in type 2 diabetes in young people. They are linking it to the big increase in the number of teenagers and young adults who are overweight or obese.

3. Gestational diabetes Diabetes that occurs during pregnancy is called gestational diabetes. If it happens during the first 12 weeks, it is probably likely that the woman had diabetes before she became pregnant. If it happens later in the pregnancy, it is more likely that her body cannot produce enough insulin for herself and the baby. Gestational diabetes usually goes away after the baby is born. But women who have had gestational diabetes are three times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes at some time of their life than those who have not had diabetes during pregnancy.

Uncontrolled diabetes and prolonged high blood sugar levels can, in later life, cause problems to many organs including the kidneys, eyes, nerves and the heart. High on the critical list for diabetics is the risk of serious eye disease and loss of vision.

Eye care professionals are predicting a devastating increase in vision loss as the diabetic epidemic grows alarmingly. Over 70% of our sensory information comes through our eyes.

High blood sugar can gradually damage the blood vessels at the back of the eye in the retina. This causes a problem called diabetic retinopathy and the longer you have diabetes the more likely you are to have retinopathy. More than 70% of diabetics develop some changes in their eyes within 15 years of diagnosis.

Non-proliferative retinopathy is the common mild form where small retinal blood vessels break and leak.

Proliferative retinopathy is more serious. New blood vessels grow abnormally within the retina. If these vessels scar or bleed they can lead to potentially serious vision loss including blindness.

Common circulatory complications include high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, reduced circulation to the limbs, kidney problems, and damage to the retina of the eye, sometimes causing blindness. People with diabetes are vulnerable to circulatory problems, which can narrow the coronary arteries, causing angina and increasing the risk of a heart attack.

Nerve-related complications include numbness, pain, and impotence. Damages to nerves and small blood vessels can cause numbness and lack of sensitivity to pain. As a result, you may be unaware of minor injuries, which then become infected. Uncontrolled diabetes can cause itching in the genital area. In men damage to the blood vessels supplying the penis can lead to impotence.

People with diabetes also have a reduced ability to fight infection, and they heal less quickly than do other people. People with high blood glucose levels are prone to cystitis, bladder and kidney infections, and diabetes can result in damage to small blood vessels.

Some of the steps a person with diabetes can take are:

1. Stabilize and control your blood sugar with diet.. A diet that controls weight establishes regular eating patterns, and helps control glucose concentrations in the blood.

2. Have a yearly diabetic eye examination.

3. Undertake regular exercise.

4. Limit alcohol intake, regulate consumption of carbohydrates, and eat plenty of fibre rich foods.

By following the above guidelines, a person with diabetes can expect to live a relatively normal and productive life. Your health care specialist will be your best ally and should be consulted whenever you have any concerns about your diabetes or your treatment.

How To Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

A healthy diet and regular exercise program not only will improve your appearance, but it also can improve your health and decrease your risk of developing certain diseases. Recent studies by Harvard researchers have concluded that moderate exercise and a healthy diet can prevent most cases of type 2 diabetes - the most common form of diabetes. The study overwhelmingly indicated that by making the appropriate lifestyle changes, diabetes can be prevented over 90% of the time. The study also concluded that lifestyle changes significantly reduced the risk of getting the disease by 58% among people who already showed signs of developing diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for over 90% of all diabetes cases. It occurs when your body can not properly utilize insulin in getting nutrients to your cells. This results in high levels of sugar in your blood. The number of cases of diabetes has been growing rapidly. Studies indicate that over 16 million Americans have some form of diabetes! Type 2 diabetes used to be considered a disease of the old, but not anymore. It is becoming much more prevalent in younger people and has recently been showing an alarming increase among young people.

Diabetes is a disease where your underlying genetic background is critical. If you have these genes and are at risk of developing diabetes, your lifestyle decisions very well may determine whether these genes become active or remain dormant.

What is most interesting is that Harvard researchers determined that 91% of cases among the people they studied could have been prevented by watching their weight, eating a healthy diet, moderate exercise, and not drinking and smoking. Being overweight is the number one reason people contract diabetes - 61% of all cases are attributed to obesity and weight problems.

Some other interesting facts: Overweight women cut their risk by 24% simply by walking regularly. There is a direct correlation between the amount of exercise and instances of diabetes. The more exercise, the less instances. Those who did 7 or more hours a week of exercise had a 29% lower risk than those who did not exercise or exercised less than 30 minutes per week. Eating a diet that is high in fiber, low in fat and low in partially hydrogenated oils (french fries, commercial baked goods) also significantly decreases your risk. If you already do not do so, become a label reader!

Pepper may not just be for seasoning. Capsaicin is a protein compound found in pepper and peppers significantly lowers blood sugar levels and increases insulin levels. Researchers have not concluded if the pepper compound acts by increasing the release of insulin, or by slowing it's breakdown. Large doses of aspirin also lower your blood sugar and is an effective treatment of diabetes, but researchers warn that that the large doses required have detrimental side effects (intestinal bleeding, dizziness, nausea) that outweigh the benefits.

There are many diseases and illnesses you have no control over, but type 2 diabetes is highly preventable by watching your weight, exercising, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking or drinking.

Brief Overview Of Diabetes And Diet

Diabetes has been around for centuries. There are presently sixteen millions diabetics in America, but eight million do not know that they have the disease. Today, diabetes is in third place as the cause of mortality, behind cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Diabetes is caused by a disruption in insulin production in the body. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas when the level of blood sugar, glucose, increases - after a meal, most commonly. With the help of insulin, glucose moves from the blood into the cells. The cellular components turn the glucose into energy. When glucose does not enter cells, it stays in the blood and is filtered by kidneys which later eliminate it from the bloodstream.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when insulin in the body does not work as it should. Main symptoms of diabetes include excessive thirst, excessive urination, excessive appetite, fatigue, blurred vision, frequent and slow-healing infections including bladder, vaginal and skin. In men, diabetes may be accompanied by such symptoms as erectile dysfunction.

In order to timely recognize diabetes, everyone should be familiar with the different types of diabetes as well as with main symptoms of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is a life-threatening condition which is less common. Those suffering with this type of diabetes need complete insulin replacement because the body does not make sufficient amounts of this essential hormone.

The most common type of diabetes is type 2 diabetes, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. 90% of all diabetes cases in the US are diagnosed as Type 2.

There is also gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy due to specific hormonal changes in the body of the expectant mother.

Diabetes is often accompanied by obesity and high cholesterol and is a disease that often runs in families, so if one of your family members has it, you have a higher risk of developing diabetes too. Lack of activity, a diet rich in fats and processed products and obesity significantly increase your risk for diabetes.

Diabetes can be prevented and controlled by amending your diet. When we eat a product that is rich in sugar, the pancreas starts to produce more insulin to turn the sugar into energy. Saturated fat is transformed by the liver into sugar, which triggers the same response of pancreas - more insulin, more energy.

When the body doesn't use this energy, it stores it as fat in the liver, on the stomach and hips. The more sugar and fat we eat, the more "storage space" our body requires.

However, when you switch to eating vegetables, cereals and other fiber-rich products cooked or seasoned with olive or grape seed oil, the pancreas does not need to produce any extra insulin. As a result, fat is not deposited in the body and the blood sugar levels remain stable. By avoiding sweet and fat-rich foods, blood sugar levels remains balanced which can delay the onset of diabetes and for those already diagnosed as diabetic can help them manage the condition.

Prevent Diabetes By Eating Right

An ounce of prevention is always better than cure, particularly if diabetes runs in your family. But this time, people need tons of prevention to keep this chronic disease from further seeping into the mainstream not only of the American society but also of societies all over the world.

Diabetes has become so widespread that the United States spends as much as $100 billion a year for the healthcare of Americans with diabetes. Millions of people all over the world have diabetes. The sad thing is most of them do not know they have it until it is too late.

Diabetes is a devastating disease which can damage the vital organs of the body including the kidneys, heart and the eyes. While diabetes does not really kill people, it can result to more serious and complicated diseases. Diabetes may not kill people as a general rule, but it makes them lose their eyesight, and leads them to kidney and heart problems, and later on, death.

People with diabetes can survive the diseases provided they practice proper health care. Those who do not have the disease, but are in danger of getting the disease due to heredity, can avoid getting the Big D through proper nutrition.

Aside from heredity, the top cause of diabetes is improper diet. Modern man's propensity for leading hectic lives has led them into eating the wrong kinds of food. Man has become so obsessed with wealth creation and pleasure, that he has no more time to prepare a well-balanced meal. Thus, the modern man's diet consists of canned goods, processed fish, meat and vegetables that can be eaten immediately by just popping it inside a microwave. The modern world has convinced man to have a preference for refined food, from sugar to grains.

Most people who are healthy all their lives are getting diabetes and the culprit is the kind of food they eat, and our ignorance as to the nutrient content of the food we eat.

But there are health-friendly foods that are available in the market, one only has to learn how to recognize and eat them. It's just a matter of changing our choice of food, like preferring whole grains over refined grains such as brown rice, whole wheat bread and the likes. Eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat, sweet and oily food. It also helps to read the labels of processed food, to determine the amount of one's carbohydrate intakes.

Most people shy away from eating right because of the misconception about proper dieting. It is okay to eat certain kinds of food but you need to know how to eat them properly like knowing the proper number of servings, or the better way of cooking such food. If you find vegetables boring, then be creative in your food preparation. Differently-colored salads can encourage your good appetite.

If you can't resist oily food, then avoid going to fast food joints because seeing french-fries hungry people will just make your saliva drop and will make you forget you diet.

So how does one know that he already has diabetes? The common symptoms are frequent urination, fatigue and being thirsty all the time. Diabetes simply means too much glucose in your bloodstream. Too much glucose in the body requires more water, thus making you feel thirsty most of the time. With thirst comes an increased water intake, making urination frequent.

Why Is Diabetes Called The Stealth Disease?

Stealth, by definition, is the way of moving without being seen, felt or detected. Does diabetes exhibit these characteristics to be tagged as the stealth disease?

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which the level of blood glucose of a person is higher than normal. There are several symptoms that tell a person he has diabetes. Some of these are frequent urination accompanied by unusual thirst, dramatic change in weight, blurring of vision, lack of energy, and many more. However, not all people who actually have diabetes show these symptoms.

Diabetes can already be quietly creeping inside your system without you knowing it, especially on its early stages. According to the current statistics of the American Diabetes Association, there are about 20. 8 million people, in the US alone, who have diabetes. Among these, around 14. 6 million were diagnosed to have the disease, while an alarming 6. 2 million people or nearly 30% of those who have diabetes do not know that they already have one. Also, in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine couple of years back, 4 out of 112 obese adolescents have the silent type of diabetes.

Different Forms of Diabetes.

There are three different types of diabetes - Type I, Type II, and Gestational diabetes. We discussed Type I and II previously as juvenile and adult. Let's review the first two types.

Formerly known as the juvenile diabetes, Type 1 is usually diagnosed at a younger age, mostly during childhood. This type can be linked to the person's genes. In this type, the pancreas has stopped producing insulin. Thus, in order for a Type 1 diabetic to survive, he needs to continuously take insulin shots.

Type 2 diabetes, also known as the adult-onset diabetes, is most common among diabetic patients - almost 90% of diabetic patients have this type. From the term adult-onset, this type of diabetes is mostly diagnosed at a later age in life. Some may have had it since childhood but just didn't realize until later. This is because, most of the time, type 2 diabetes starts to show symptoms when it is already in the advanced stage.

Type 2 diabetes can also be linked to the person's lifestyle and diet. That is why people who are overweight or those aged 40 and above have greater risks in developing this type of the disease. Thus, to control or prevent having diabetes in the future, we should all be mindful of the things we do and the food we eat.

The third kind is the gestational diabetes. This is only present in pregnant women, most of the time during the third trimester. This kind is usually caused by certain hormones brought about by pregnancy or, like the other types, lack of insulin. Ob-Gyns oftentimes require their patients to undergo the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, especially when the woman is almost overweight due to her pregnancy. Even if this type ceases after giving birth, there is a big possibility that the woman will acquire Type 2 diabetes in the future.

If no proper care is administered or left improperly managed, this stealth disease can lead to further complications. These complications may be heart, kidney or eye problems, impotence or even nerve damage. Therefore, careful management is really necessary for diabetic patients.