1.   The findings, published in the journal Science, also suggest that reducing leptin levels below normal might hold puberty at bay.

2.   Consistent with this view, Flier finds that leptin levels drop when people are losing weight.

3.   Flier reasoned that if he was correct, leptin levels should go down if animals or people were starved.

4.   In mice, and now in people, he and others found that leptin levels did drop with starvation.

5.   Researchers believe there is a correlation between high leptin levels in the blood and obesity.

6.   Serotonin-based drugs may help with initial weight loss, he says, but lowered leptin levels may encourage the pounds to roll back on.

7.   Their study found leptin levels to be high or low in direct relation to the amount of body fat a person has.

8.   These scientists say that the important signal in the brain may be a decline in leptin levels.

9.   High leptin levels might also suppress appetite, said Dr. Timothy Brewerton of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

10.   The new studies found that anorexia nervosa patients in treatment had low leptin levels early on, but that levels rose as patients put on weight.