Much attention is given to the fact that if you're overweight, not only are you dicing with a possible heart attack, but you may not be able to have a baby, either.
If you're very slim, you may have a similar risk, even though this is less publicized.
Not eating enough, exercising excessively or having an eating disorder such as anorexia can cause heart conditions and infertility, too.
What is Leptin?
Leptin is a hormone that was discovered in 1994. You produce this hormone to regulate your appetite and weight. For instance, it lets you know when you are hungry and when you have had enough to eat. It also monitors the energy levels available to you and if these are low, sends a warning signal to your brain. If the energy stores remain low, then your brain will start to shut down some of your non-vital processes to conserve energy and your reproductive system is one of those non-vital processes. Your ovulation and periods will then stop or become irregular. The amount of leptin you produce will also be reduced.
It is a very clever survival mechanism by the human body to try and protect you from disease and death. In times of starvation and war, it also means that many women cannot have babies, which is good thing if there is a lack of food and resources to care for them.
However, in today's western world, the chance of war or famine is remote to non-existent, so the threat of low weight mainly comes from inadequate diet, over work, eating disorders and metabolic disease. The size zero models used in media advertising and in women's magazines may contribute to low energy malfunctions by putting unrealistic pressure on women to have perfect figures.
Studies of Leptin
Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA studied the effect of leptin on 14 female athletes. The athletes obviously went through an extremely high level of physical exercise and they dieted to keep fit and all of them had stopped menstruating more than five years before the study.
Eight women received leptin hormone supplementation, twice daily, and the other six women acted as a placebo.
All of them women were instructed not to change their usual diet or lifestyle.
After just three months, the women who were supplemented had resumed their periods and ovulation. The six women who had had no treatment, remained the same.
With these encouraging results, they tentatively suggested that treatment with leptin may be a safer alternative to the use of estrogen replacement, which has many side-effects.
'Our findings help elucidate the pathophysiology of hypothalamicamenorrhea and may have therapeutic implications. Estrogen is the standardtreatment but may have side effects. Further studies are warranted to determine the safety and efficacyof r-metHuLeptin, including the optimal dose and duration oftreatment required to restore reproductive function.'
Source: The New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 351:987-997, no.10, September 2, 2004.
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