Two recent reports on clinical trials link the hormone leptin to weight loss. Discovered several years ago, leptin appears to play a role in how the body manages fat. Leptin (from "leptos", which means thin) is manufactured by fat tissue; researchers theorize that it is involved in weight loss and decreased appetite. Just how it regulates weight and appetite is under study, with the answers not yet clear.

Meanwhile, research continues to link weight loss with reduced levels of leptin. A recent report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition documented that people who made long-term lifestyle changes such as reducing dietary fat and increasing physical activity significantly lowered their plasma leptin concentrations as they lost weight.

Another study, this one reported in the American Journal of Hypertension, found that when people with high blood pressure lost weight, their leptin levels were considerably lowered. Researchers found that dieting patients taking an ACE inhibitor to control their blood pressure showed dramatically lower levels of leptin than those taking a calcium channel blocker. Patients in the ACE inhibitor group also had a higher success rate in losing weight. They noted that people who lost weight were able to reduce the dosage of their antihypertensive medications.

Lowering leptin levels appears to be an important step in both losing weight and in treating obesity-related hypertension. Researchers are continuing their quest to solve the mystery of leptin, with high hopes for finding an aid to weight loss.

Related information Manage weight

Sources:

• American Society of Hypertension. Lowering leptin levels lessened weight and blood pressure. Press release, June 2001.
• Reseland JE, Anderssen SA, Solvoll K et al. Effect of long-term changes in diet and exercise on plasma leptin concentrations. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Feb. 2001;73(2):240-245. (Abs.)