Happy Mother's Day

Hi, Happy Mother's Day to all of you!

Today is a great day! I had Sunday School this morning and God's words were great!  I got up this morning at 6am and had my morning cup of coffee x 2. I was reading my book "Fat Chance" and it has so much information about different health problems. And the one I want to talk about is:
 The Usual Suspects: Leptin and Insulin!
Not only are they central in the starvation response, but theY are also key players in the hedonic pathway, modulating reward in response to meals. In normal circumstances, after you've eaten a sufficient amount, leptin sends a signal to the VTA to suppress the release of dopamine, thereby reducing the reward of food. So leptin extinguishes reward. But what if you are leptin resistant? That's what obesity is: leptin resistance. If leptin can't act, then the dopamine isn't cleared from the NA, and the impetus for further consumption persists. If you're leptin resistant, do you really think you have the willpower to ignore both the starvation signal and the reward signal, when every food outlet you pass by provides you with sight or smell  you to chow down? Starvation and reward conspire to thwart every obese person.

What about insulin, leptin's accomplice?  Normally, people are sufficiently sensitive to insulin. Insulin's job is to clear dopamine from that pathway between the cells in the NA's  Thus, the rise in insulin that occurs during a meal blunts the reward of further food intake (I've eaten enough--I really don't need a second helping). This acts as a servomechanism built into the hedonic pathway to prevent overfeeding. But what happens when you are insulin resistant?  Insulin resistance leads to leptin resistance in the VTA, contributing to increased caloric intake by preventing dopamine clearance from the NA.  Increased pleasure is then derived from food when energy stores are full.  Insulin and leptin resistance lead not only to increased food intake but to increased palatable food intake or anything that is high in both fat and sugar: the muffins, the Cinnabons, the cookies, the cheesecake.  Is it any wonder Mrs. Fields is in every shopping mall?