Weight loss has always been a concern for people who suffer from diseases due to being overweight or are suffering from obesity. Our daily food and lifestyle play a vital role in knowing how healthy we are, and it is evident through our body structure.
Our body consists of millions of hormones and structures we hardly are aware of. We make ourselves aware of various complex elements in our body through multiple studies conducted by renowned research scholars and Universities.
One such study has been formulated by a group of research where they have found a hormone to help reduce body weight in people and how the body stores energy while one is in the weight loss phase. The researchers on a mice model conducted the study, and the hypotheses were made based on that.
Scientists and researchers believe that the name Growth Hormone (GH) is the hormone that has been newly found to help in weight loss, and it isn’t something new in the human body. Growth Hormone is responsible for the bones’ growth in a body and is essential for a growing body such as a teenager or young adult, helping maintain our organs and tissues.
There are so many mechanisms behind the dieting process and what our body goes through during that phase. The hypotheses built on the rat model that GH plays a significant role in weight reduction in a body have many complex observations.
The researchers from the University of São Paulo in Brazil found this new GH role when they experimented with this theory on mice. The researchers observed that whenever an animal could not search for food, its body responds to it by saving energy because it becomes necessary to survive and keep going on for the time being till it finds food again.
The restricted food intake leads to energy conservation with the help of the Growth hormone, and this is what happens when an individual is losing weight or trying to do so. The experts believed that conserved energy isn’t easy to maintain/ prevent the weight from returning to its previous form after dieting.
Leptin: The weight loss Hormone
Our body has a hormone released by the fat cells, and this hormone plays a role in responding to a reduction in the body’s weight. The hormone is known as leptin, and experts believe that this hormone could help in curbing hunger. So an increased fat in the body would mean more amount of letting.
But as we begin to lose weight, the leptin levels drop in our bloodstream, making us feel more hungry and want to eat frequently. Some people develop leptin resistance, and they stop responding to the hormone itself, causing even more hunger and feeling the need to eat more often.
As we have a considerable bodyweight, more leptin in our body leads to energy conservation in the body. But leptin doesn’t play any role in the weight loss process; instead, GH has been discovered as a new element playing an active role in energy conservation in the body.
After their observation, researchers concluded that GH receptors are found in significant amounts in the organs directly connected to growth metabolism in a person. But the discovery stated that it could also be found in the brain.
As a result, leptin levels reduce in the bloodstream because there is a low-calorie intake when he/she is trying to reduce weight, but the GH increases on the other hand. The GH receptors in the brain are found in the hypothalamus, which is responsible for the functioning of the autonomic nervous system- controlling automatic mechanisms such as breathing or digestion.
One other role played by the hypothalamus is the expenditure of energy conserved in the body and food intake- the process known as energy homeostasis. Experts observed that the hypothalamus neurons release a protein known as agouti-related (AgRP). We feel hungry when the neurons release AgRP protein, and the body tries to hold this energy more tightly.
The researchers explain that GH preceptors are the reason neurons are activated to release AgRP protein.
The Mice Model Experiment
To understand how GH preceptors influence AgRP neurons, the researchers from the University of São Paulo experimented on mice that lacked ‘the AgRP-specific GH receptor.’ The researchers deprived the mice of food for some days and observed their energy stored and spent.
The mice with GH preceptors responded to how they should when their calorie intake was restricted, and the energy expenditure was assessed. But when the mice which lacked the receptors were observed, it was found that the decrease in energy expenditure was relatively smaller.
Hence, the consequence was that the ice without GH receptor lost weight tremendously, resulting from ‘energy-dense fatty tissue.’ The researchers also observed a reduction in lean mass from muscle, bone, and organs.
Another experiment was conducted by the scholars where they did not engineer the mice to lack GH preceptors. But they tried blocking these receptors with the help of a drug known as pegvisomant. With food-deprived, the mice’s energy expenditure reduced compared to the mice who were not given the medication Pegvisomant.
The lead author of the study, José Donato Junior, mentions that,
we discovered that weight loss triggers an increase in hypothalamus GH levels, which activates the AgRP neurons, making weight loss harder and intensifying the sense of hunger. That’s precisely the same function leptin performs.
Hence, GH receptors are responsible for growth metabolism, but they also influence metabolism to conserve energy during the period when we are on a diet or feel hungry. The researchers mention the role of GH receptors stating that,
GH receptors signals energy deficiency to the brain, triggering neuroendocrine responses to conserve body energy stores.
The entire study was just a hypothesis that explains the weight-loss intervention based entirely on leptin is ineffective. The researcher believes that this study might help in the future for obesity treatments. But it requires a proper in-depth analysis to validate the review universally on humans as well.
