Fat, Which Burns Calories - We All Have It

Video: Fat, Which Burns Calories - We All Have It

Video: Fat, Which Burns Calories - We All Have It
Video: Burning Calories vs. Burning FAT Calories? – Dr.Berg 2024, November
Fat, Which Burns Calories - We All Have It
Fat, Which Burns Calories - We All Have It
Anonim

For 30 years, scientists have been intrigued by brown adipose tissue, which acts as a furnace, consuming calories and generating heat. Rodents that are unable to tremble to successfully retain body heat use their brown adipose tissue instead.

This is exactly what human babies do, who can't tremble very well. But it is generally believed that people lose their brown adipose tissue after early childhood because they no longer need it because they can now tremble.

However, this belief has been proven to be wrong in the reports of three groups of scientists. Their research shows that almost every adult has a little brown adipose tissue, which can burn a huge number of calories when activated by cold.

Weaker people have more brown adipose tissue than obese people, younger people more than older people, and women more than men.

"The important thing about brown adipose tissue is that very little of it burns a lot of energy," says Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, head of the Obesity Section at the Boston Diabetes Center.

The tissue is really brown, the researchers say, because it is full of mitochondria - small energy components of cells. Mitochondria contain iron, which gives the tissue a reddish-brown color.

The hope is that scientists can find a safe way to activate brown adipose tissue in humans, which will allow them to lose weight by burning more calories. But researchers are on the alert, as the finding that mice lose weight if their brown adipose tissue is activated does not indicate whether this will happen in humans - they may unknowingly eat more, for example. In addition, data on global obesity are insufficient to say whether the cold climate is making people weaker.

Brown adipose tissue in the elderly is in an unexpected place. In babies, it is mostly on the back - like a blanket of cells that cover it. In rodents, it is mostly between the shoulder blades under their necks. In older people, this tissue is in the upper back, on the side of the neck, in the hollow between the clavicle and the shoulder, and along the spine.

"This may be one of the reasons why the tissue has not been found for so long," says Dr. Kahn.

"Before about 20-25, there was interest in finding this tissue in humans, but it was always sought between the shoulder blades. And because there is very little brown adipose tissue, it is extremely difficult to detect," he added.

His study included 1972 people. The scan showed brown adipose tissue in 7.5% of women and 3% of men. These are approximate percentages because the tissue was not activated by cold during the tests.

A second study, led by Wouter G. van Marken of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, included 24 healthy young men. Ten of them are thin and the rest are overweight or obese.

The scans did not show the presence of brown adipose tissue when the men were in a room with a normal temperature. But after moving to a cool room for two hours, the scanner registers brown adipose tissue in all but one obese person.

A third study, led by Dr. Sven Enerbak of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, involved five healthy adults. Each of them underwent two scans - once when he was in a room with a more comfortable temperature, and the second time after being in a cool room for two hours.

Researchers see brown adipose tissue in their "chilled objects." Three of the participants allowed the researchers to remove some of the white and some of the brown adipose tissue to prove that what looked like brown adipose tissue was in fact.

Researchers believe that research should continue to find safe ways to activate brown adipose tissue. It is known that it can be activated not only by cold, but also by some hormones. Therefore, beta-blockers that block these hormones can suppress the activation of brown adipose tissue.

Adrenaline can stimulate brown adipose tissue, according to Dr. Rudolf Labelle of Columbia University Medical Center. However, drugs have too many side effects to be used for weight loss.

Brown fat is a dream, says Dr. Label - to eat whatever you want and burn calories immediately. However, this is still really just a fantasy.

If a pill is found to stimulate brown adipose tissue, this would be the first drug to act not on appetite but on energy expenditure.

However, the option remains to stay in a cold room.

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