Since the discovery of leptin in 1994, many have hoped that the hormone would be a promising weight-loss treatment for humans. Leptin acts as a signal to help the body decide when it has eaten enough food to feel full. The amount of leptin in the blood has been directly linked to body fat.

After receiving leptin replacement therapy, research subjects with a recessive mutation in the obesity (ob) gene – a population both deficient in Leptin and morbidly obese – lost about half of their body weight while regulating their own food intake. (Medical news Today 4/5/2005).

If you take it at face value, it seems as if the research is saying that more leptin will help you lose weight. This research refers to subjects with a genetic basis for obesity who were deficient in leptin. But obese individuals tend to have more and larger leptin-producing fat cells than thinner people. They simply are not getting vital chemical signals to their brains that tell them to stop eating.

To illustrate my point:

Despite an assiduous search, scientists have found only a half-dozen people in the world who make no leptin. These people eat voraciously – one 3-year-old girl consumed 2,000 calories at a sitting. When several of these people were treated with leptin, they lost their appetites and their weight plummeted. (The New York Times 31/10/1999).

Don’t get me wrong, if it helps those who cannot make leptin, then this is a major breakthrough for them.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, goes a long way toward proving to me that more leptin does not equal less weight in very overweight people in the general population.

To make things worse, a hormone called leptin that was supposed to be the magic bullet for obesity, making people effortlessly lose fat while retaining muscle, looks like a bust. In a preliminary study reported last week, most people who took leptin lost little or no weight – one fat person who took the highest dose actually gained 20 pounds. (The New York Times 31/10/1999).

Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston say lean, physically active people have low levels of leptin, which is produced by the body’s fat cells and is believed to be a major culprit in causing obesity. The study finds that when couch potatoes start exercising regularly, their leptin levels decrease.

“As you get fatter, your body makes more leptin,” says Eric B. Rimm, Sc.D., associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and a co-author of the study. “But when you exercise, the amount of leptin in the blood decreases. Most of the time, you also lose weight, which means your risk of heart disease decreases too.” (Science Daily 7/3/2000).

Normally, when leptin levels in blood go up, the brain signals us to stop eating. But since obesity isn’t the result of a lack of leptin, it is a lack of response to leptin, and obese individuals tend to have more and larger leptin-producing fat cells (leptin is a hormone secreted by fat cells) than thinner people, their leptin levels increase substantially with every pound of additional weight gain.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there appears to be no logic in the idea of taking more leptin to reduce weight if you have an impaired response to leptin.

It is important to keep in mind that the study that showed that raising leptin levels in people who have already lost weight helps them to keep the weight off. It does not help people to lose weight in the first place. It prevents the yo-yoing that most dieters go through as their leptin levels drop and the brain tries to compensate by increasing hunger.

Weight loss lowers levels of leptin, which in turn can restore an impaired response to leptin signaling.

Disclaimer: The information and opinions in this article is for information purposes only and is believed to be accurate and sound, based on the best judgment available to the author. Readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Readers who fail to consult appropriate health authorities assume the risk of any injuries.

Where did you spend your last vacation? It’s more than likely that like the rest of the tourist herd you also have been in a beautiful sun bathed beach resort or any other place, crowded into those usual inns where the noisy families with their toddlers compete with one another for just about anything .

How about something a lot different this time around? One of the great tips to enjoy your vacations is to rent a cottage and do just about anything you want to be doing. Or laze around in your holiday and quietly take pleasure in your life as it comes.

Cottages do have indeed grown into very well liked hire lodging among travelers. You might see cottages alongside lakes, beaches, in the valleys and woods and also up in the mountains. Cottages are readily obtainable for rent for brief term as well as for lengthy periods. Benchmarks vary from the very simple to the really indulgent to suit all pockets.

Possibly the most interesting of any cottages to let are those transformed from widespread apartment complexes that could be as old as three hundred years.

Many have been transformed in to two or three bedroom hire cottages in beautiful valleys in idyllic rural England. Many cottages have retained much of their special charisma and extraordinaryspeciality and are indeed well set up. Every cottage has a log fireplace and its very own garden .

But what just about all cottages have usually is a kind of vacation mood that no place in a larger town can offer. There is peace and calm and you could feel yourself to be so far from the noisy crowds. You might organize your day as you please.

It is pretty safe to assume that we all know what the most common question asked by back pain sufferers typically is, “What are my treatment options?”

There are a number of traditional treatment methods a back pain patient may undergo when they first experience back pain or discomfort. An example would be bed rest. Bed rest may be prescribed for back pain sufferers whose conditions are not considered serious. The downfall of this treatment method is that patients may be more likely to develop depression and experience other negative effects.

Physical therapy is another common treatment option recommended for back pain sufferers. Certain exercises can improve the general function and strength of the spine, but may not address the primary cause of a patient’s back pain.

Pain medication or pain killers will normally function by temporarily decreasing inflammation, muscle spasm and pain. This option will only alleviate symptoms, but rarely does it deal with the primary cause of pain.

A treatment option introduced over 2,500 years ago is called acupuncture. It is a form of treatment where by needles are inserted into various parts of the body, such as in ankles, knees, or fingers for the treatment of back pain.

Back surgery attempts to correct the primary cause of the problem. Some patients report significant relief of pain after surgery, but the risks involved make this option a last resort for many.

Manual traction may be used by a therapist, by utilizing the patient’s weight to change both the force and direction of pull. Auto traction is when the patient controls the traction forces by grabbing and pulling on the end of the traction table.

Non-surgical spinal decompression therapy is another treatment alternative available to back pain sufferers. The DRX9000 True Non-surgical Spinal Decompression System^TM is designed to provide pain relief for compressive and degenerative injuries of the spine. Through the application of spinal decompressive forces to these injuries, patients have found relief from their back pain problems.

As new emerging technologies arise, more and more back pain sufferers are finding the relief they so desperately search for.

Consult with your physician prior to undergoing any form of treatment.

Forex PIP Explained is the smallest increment in price for a currency pair. The Forex pip is an acronym for Percentage in Point. Unlike dollars and cents which are shown with two decimal places, the Forex market currencies are shown with four decimal places. The smallest increment in price which is .0001 is what is referred to as a PIP. For example in the EURUSD the movement from 1.3894 to 1.3895 is one PIP.

The formula to calculate forex pip value is to take one pip and divide it by the price of the currency pair value and then multiply it by one unit which is 10000. You then need to change it to the USD so you multiply it by the current price. For Example Using the USDCAD

(.0001/1.2148) X 10000 = .8232 X 1.2148 = $1.00

You will always see that with any currency pair the pip value is always $1.00 per 10000 currency units. You may think that this value is very low. However you need to take into account that currencies are traded in lots of $100,000.00 which is $10.00 per pip. When you purchase one lot for $10.00 and the currency increases by 3 pips you have gained $30.00.

It is very important that you understand the Forex PIP Explained above as you will be using pips in calculating your profit and losses. Make sure you read this over and over again as The Forex PIP is the basis for trading in the Forex market