This "Master Hormone" could be just the ticket to optimal animal wellness.
Leptin is a hormone produced by your pet's fat cells (adipose tissue) and is commonly referred to as the “satiety hormone” or “hunger hormone” due to its crucial role in regulating appetite and energy balance. Leptin also serves as your pet’s body energy manager, the master hormone that ensures everything runs smoothly!
How Does Leptin Work?
When your pet eats, leptin levels rise and send signals to their brain that they’ve had enough to eat. It's like your pet's internal "full" signal, telling them to finish eating and start burning off that stored energy.
Since the brain can’t physically wire up all 20 trillion of our cells (imagine the cramming issue!), it relies on hormones and cytokines to communicate with every single cell. Think of leptin as the brain’s personal messenger, which delivers a detailed report from every cell in the body, constantly updating it on the body’s nutritional, metabolic, and endocrine status. It helps the brain manage everything from blood sugar levels to energy balance, and it even influences neuroendocrine functions across all systems.
When Was Leptin Discovered?
Leptin was discovered in 1994 by researchers Jeffrey Friedman and his team at Rockefeller University. Friedman and his colleagues used mice genetically modified to be deficient in leptin. These mice became obese because they couldn't properly regulate their appetite or energy use. When given leptin, the mice lost weight, offering crucial insights into how the body controls hunger and metabolism. This discovery was revolutionary, revealing how fat cells communicate with the brain to control hunger and energy balance, and opened up new avenues for research into obesity and related metabolic disorders.
During my time in chiropractic school from 1998 to 2002, leptin was never covered, illustrating how slowly new advancements make their way into education. We extensively studied insulin and its impact on Type I and Type II diabetes, but the role of leptin in fat communication and its influence on insulin and bodily functions was never conveyed.
Today, insulin is seen as playing a supporting role, with leptin holds the lead as the master communicator. Leptin continuously assesses insulin and other signals at the hypothalamic level, orchestrating responses through its effects on neurons. In this dynamic, leptin is the master, while insulin takes a backseat to leptin’s dominant role in the brain.
Leptin and Canine Weight Management
Leptin plays a crucial role in balancing your animal's metabolism by regulating energy expenditure and storage. When a dog eats, roughly 40% of the calories are directed to the liver, providing energy between meals to sustain normal energy levels. For humans, this figure is about 60%. The remaining 60% of the energy is transported to peripheral tissues and muscles, where insulin facilitates its entry into cells.
If these cells are leptin-sensitive, they utilize all 60% of the calories, leaving nothing unused. However, if they are leptin-resistant, the excess calories are sent back to the liver and stored as fat due to elevated insulin levels.
Over time, increased fat storage raises leptin levels. If fat accumulates in the liver, it can trigger a significant immune response, leading to inflammation and elevated liver values, which are often detected in blood work performed by your pet health team.
When fat tissue becomes hypertrophied (enlarged), it can produce inflammatory cytokines, leading to chronic low-grade inflammation. This inflammation is linked to conditions such as obesity, diabetes, elevated liver values, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases.
Therefore, fat cells (comprised of adipose tissue), are a crucial and dynamic part of the body, playing key roles in regulating energy balance, hormone production, and metabolic health. Its impact extends well beyond just storing excess calories, affecting overall health and disease risk.
Fun fact: Our pets and us humans, aren’t born with leptin. Instead, we get our first dose from our mother’s colostrum during breastfeeding. Think of this initial batch of leptin like plugging a USB drive into a computer to install new software. It “programs” our leptin receptors, fine-tunes our epigenetic switches, and sets up the whole system
When Pets Can't Lose Weight
Leptin resistance can affect your pet, when their brain doesn't respond effectively to signals from fat cells. This can lead to overeating and weight gain, even when there's sufficient stored energy. Detecting leptin resistance in pets can be challenging. Do they ever feel truly satiated? In humans who are leptin-sensitive, they recognize when they're full and stop eating or snacking.
I believe leptin resistance is a concern for our pets, but typical signs like overeating or increased snacking aren't always obvious with dogs. For example, my dogs always seem hungry, and it's my responsibility to manage their food intake. Some dogs do stop eating when they're full or occasionally refuse a treat, but when that happens, we as pet owners tend to worry. Currently, the most reliable indicator of leptin resistance is observing animals that eat very little yet don't lose weight, or even gain more.
Supporting Healthy Leptin Levels
How can a leptin deficiency be mitigated?
1. Get up with your pet every morning and watch the sunrise. This is the first step to regulating your pet's (and your own) circadian biology which is integral to the function of leptin. (It's also beneficial to get outside for sunset).
2. Feed breakfast shortly after sunrise. Try this intermittent fasting approach!
3. Feed a Raw Dog Food Diet. This is the least processed and lowest carbohydrate choice help improve leptin sensitivity and regulate appetite.
4. Exercise when it is most supportive for your pet's body - in the afternoon is ideal between 2 and 4pm. Never walk before sunrise or after sunset. Rest days are important.
5. If possible, get your animals outside for 4 to 6 hours a day.
Don't be shy, drop your pet weight questions in the comments below! And if you know someone struggling to get their pup's weight on the straight and narrow, please pass this along!
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Book a virtual pet wellness consult with Dr. Andi today! Whether you're navigating the ins and outs of feeding schedules, tackling health concerns, or just looking for personalized advice to keep your pet happy and healthy, Dr. Andi is here to guide you every step of the way.
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