Scientists have found out: women who have higher leptin hormone, controlling appetite, show less symptoms of depression, and this fact is not related to the body mass index, reports Xinhua.

Elisabeth Lawson from the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School in Boston says: "The data obtained from animal studies suggest that leptin can reduce anxiety and improve depression. But our observation of women shows how leptin really manifests itself as an antidepressant ".

Leptin is a product of the work of fat cells, signaling a sense of satiety. His level is low in lean women and is extremely high in obese. It is also known that in some disorders associated with low levels of leptin, anxiety and depression are noted. These include anorexia nervosa and functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation, despite normal weight).

Find out how leptin affects the emotional background in women, helped monitor for 64 volunteers.

15 of them had anorexia, 12 had normal weight, but amenorrhea was fixed, 20 people had healthy weight and normal state of health, and 17 had excess weight, but as a whole there were no abnormalities.

All participants in the study were asked questions to assess the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The higher the estimates, the more symptoms were recorded. In addition to measuring leptin levels, scientists evaluated the Body Mass Index of all volunteers. It turned out that the relationship between the level of leptin and the symptoms of depression did not depend on the Body Mass Index.

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