A few days ago Dr. Michael Okun posted the attached article on his Twitter feed and said that he generally encourages his patients to be 5-10 lbs over their ideal weight.
Yoon, Seo Yeon et al. ‘Association Between Body Mass Index Changes and All-Cause Mortality in Parkinson’s Disease’. 1 Jan. 2024 : 1 – 10.
content.iospress.com/downlo...
The article is not completely compelling because the underweight groups are small in size, but it did make me pause. I'm low BMI, if not quite underweight and I have been losing weight.
I rationalized that it must be related to increased frailty and risks due to falls. So I dug in and it seems more than that. And it's complex. (And I'm only going to talk about leptin and not ghrelin).
This rather dense review on the non-appetite related functions of leptin suggest that leptin is neuroprotective.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Leptin increases with higher BMI, and several studies show that leptin is lower in the Parkinson's groups.
I don't think I've heard a discussion about leptin here before. Certainly, gaining fat is not something that I have aimed to do or considered.
Between my lack of appetite, trying to get all my good nutrients, and my exercise regime, I'm pretty lean. Still, eating a little pizza every week sounds like pretty easy medicine .
I know many of you spend more time in the literature than me. Have you seen this? Thoughts?