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Why Is
It Difficult to Keep Weight Off? As we know, the prevailing unhealthy lifestyle has caused obesity becoming an epidemic, which many countries find difficulty in dealing with it. This is because if overweight or obesity is not managed appropriately, it may lead to many complications like heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, diabetes, high cholesterol, cancer, etc. People who have gone through weight loss programs always have difficulties in keep the weight off. The researchers have always curious about this phenomenon. A recent study had helped scientists discover the secret behind this. A group of United States researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York revealed that people having difficulty to keep the extra weight off their bodies is due to the declining levels of a hormone known as leptin. Leptin is nothing more than a protein hormone that helps regulating body weight, metabolism and reproductive function. Therefore, if restoring leptin to pre-diet levels may assist dieters to win the weight battle. The findings were published in June 20, 2008 the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
According to the researchers, the metabolism after weight loss becomes more efficient, so the body needs fewer calories. However, the brain also becomes more vulnerable to tasty-looking treats. In fact, the discovery of leptin had created a stir in the 1990s when researchers found leptin caused mice to eat less and lose weight. This rarely happens in humans, but researchers have since then been searching the ways to utilize the hormone to help treat obesity. Earlier studies did find that when people lose weight, leptin levels fall as the body tries to protect its energy stores. The new study focuses on the impact of the loss of leptin on the brains of people who had lost weight, and whether replacing the hormone could help them keep off the weight. The imaging technique used in the study is known as functional magnetic resonance imaging that shows activity in the brain. 6 obese patients were studied before and after going on a hospital-supervised diet that reduced their body weight by 10 percent. When showing pictures of food and non-food items to them, researchers found that after weight loss, areas in the brain responsible for regulating food intake were less active on seeing food images. Meanwhile, areas in the brain responsible for emotion were more active. Nevertheless, when leptin was restored to the levels before the dieting, these changes were simply reversed. Similar results have also been shown in people with a rare genetic condition in which their bodies do not make leptin. Based on the findings, the researchers believed leptin could be a useful tool to help people maintain weight loss, and they even suggested that there should be a new class of therapies to assist people keeps weight off even after they have lost it.
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