In obese patients, both the hormone system and the reward system are disrupted, but this can be improved within a week with a strict diet. This is evident from the PhD research conducted by internist Sigridur Jakobsdottir (VUmc) that she defended last Friday.
The two most important hormones in the game of arriving and losing weight are the ghrelin and leptin discovered in the nineties. Leptin tells the brain how much fat mass there is. The more fat, the more the food intake is suppressed. Ghreline stimulates food intake, reduces energy consumption and stimulates fat storage. In addition, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the growth hormone / IGF-1 axis play important roles. In patients with obesity, all these systems do not work as they should. The endocrine system becomes confused: patients become resistant to leptin and therefore continue to eat unnecessarily. The neuroendocrine systems will work against patients instead of helping. There will be more ACTH, more cortisol and more growth hormone in the bloodstream, resulting in more fat storage.
The reward system in the brain is also disrupted in patients with obesity. The amygdala, together with the orbitofrontal cortex, provides for the interpretation and processing of visual information about food and these areas are overactive in obese patients. As a result, the pleasant effect of seeing and consuming high caloric food is probably much stronger in overweight patients. In healthy individuals, the reward effect is suppressed by leptin.
Jakobsdottir studied the effects of calorie restriction on neuroendocrine systems. For this she had eighteen obese women follow a diet of a thousand calories for eight weeks. Already after one week, blood pressure, leptin levels and triglyceride levels were significantly lower, while the ghrelin level rose. After one week, the increased activity also decreased in the right amygdala. These results build on earlier research and show that by caloric restriction the disturbed neuroendocrine systems can recover very quickly.
Jakobsdottir hopes that with the further deepening of knowledge about the influence of hormones on weight reduction, more targeted treatment of obesity can come. In particular, increasing leptin or blocking ghrelin has a lot of potential, according to the researcher. These could possibly also be starting points for the development of treatments for anorexia, bulimia and depression.
The two most important hormones in the game of arriving and losing weight are the ghrelin and leptin discovered in the nineties. Leptin tells the brain how much fat mass there is. The more fat, the more the food intake is suppressed. Ghreline stimulates food intake, reduces energy consumption and stimulates fat storage. In addition, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the growth hormone / IGF-1 axis play important roles. In patients with obesity, all these systems do not work as they should. The endocrine system becomes confused: patients become resistant to leptin and therefore continue to eat unnecessarily. The neuroendocrine systems will work against patients instead of helping. There will be more ACTH, more cortisol and more growth hormone in the bloodstream, resulting in more fat storage.
The reward system in the brain is also disrupted in patients with obesity. The amygdala, together with the orbitofrontal cortex, provides for the interpretation and processing of visual information about food and these areas are overactive in obese patients. As a result, the pleasant effect of seeing and consuming high caloric food is probably much stronger in overweight patients. In healthy individuals, the reward effect is suppressed by leptin.
Jakobsdottir studied the effects of calorie restriction on neuroendocrine systems. For this she had eighteen obese women follow a diet of a thousand calories for eight weeks. Already after one week, blood pressure, leptin levels and triglyceride levels were significantly lower, while the ghrelin level rose. After one week, the increased activity also decreased in the right amygdala. These results build on earlier research and show that by caloric restriction the disturbed neuroendocrine systems can recover very quickly.
Jakobsdottir hopes that with the further deepening of knowledge about the influence of hormones on weight reduction, more targeted treatment of obesity can come. In particular, increasing leptin or blocking ghrelin has a lot of potential, according to the researcher. These could possibly also be starting points for the development of treatments for anorexia, bulimia and depression.
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