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In a major breakthrough, scientists have identified a rather elusive protein involved in the production of ‘good’ fat, brown fat, and found it can even boost the formation of these cells in white fat. Understanding how to ‘switch on’ the creation of this type of energy-burning cell opens the door to novel weight-loss treatments that have eluded researchers to date. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is essential for producing heat from blood sugar and fat molecules, through a process called thermogenesis. It also requires a lot of energy (or calories) to fuel this. Unfortunately, by the time we reach adulthood, most...

Researchers have uncovered the molecular structure of Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), a protein instrumental in the burning of calories in brown fat tissue, often referred to as ‘good fat’. The essential molecular details discovered could aid in the development of therapeutics to activate UCP1 artificially, thus enabling the burning of excess calories and potentially combating obesity and diabetes. Scientists have discovered the molecular structure of the protein UCP1, crucial to calorie burning in ‘good’ brown fat tissue. This breakthrough, providing detailed molecular insights, could enable the development of treatments that artificially activate UCP1, thus burning off excess calories to combat...

Research finds that shivering during repeated exposure to cold improves glucose tolerance, decreases fasting blood sugar and blood fat levels, and markedly reduces blood pressure in overweight and obese adults. The preliminary study highlights the potential for repeated cold exposure that activates shivering as an alternative strategy to treat and prevent type 2 diabetes (T2D). "When we are cold, we can activate our brown fat because it burns energy and releases heat to protect us. In addition, muscle can contract mechanically, or shivers, thereby generating heat. As there is considerably more muscle than brown fat in a human, shivering can...

Pantothenate acid, also known as vitamin B5, stimulated the production of brown fat in both cell cultures and mice, a new study finds. "We identified [pantothenate acid] as an effective [brown fat] activator that can prevent obesity and may represent a promising strategy for the clinical treatment of obesity and related metabolic diseases," the researchers wrote. Unlike the more common white fat, brown fat burns calories to produce heat. Under particular conditions, white fat can be converted to brown fat. Scientists have been investigating the behavior of brown fat and methods of converting white fat in hope of finding treatments...

Cold plunging, or dunking one’s body into frigid water, is how the 24-year-old stunner likes to get gorgeous before hitting the catwalk for the industry’s biggest fashion houses, including Chanel, Versace and, most recently, Christian Siriano during the brand’s NYFW show at the Empire State Building last week. She told The Post that her regular icy dips — for as much as 10 minutes at a time — are her “ultimate beauty tip,” especially before photoshoots and events. In fact, Vonnahme, who recently began cold-plunging on a lark while spending time in the Hamptons during colder months, claims it’s enough...

PET scans showing someone with brown fat (l) and no brown fat. (Andreas G. Wibmer/Heiko Schöder/MSKCC) ============================================================== A large new study has provided strong evidence that people with brown fat in their bodies are less likely to suffer from a range of health conditions. "For the first time, it reveals a link to lower risk of certain conditions," says one of the researchers, Rockefeller University Hospital physician Paul Cohen. "These findings make us more confident about the potential of targeting brown fat for therapeutic benefit." Brown fat or brown adipose tissue (BAT) is particularly common in hibernating mammals and...

fatcells A study by University of Alberta researchers has shown the fat cells that lie just beneath our skin shrink when exposed to the blue light emitted by the sun. “When the sun’s blue light wavelengths—the light we can see with our eye—penetrate our skin and reach the fat cells just beneath, lipid droplets reduce in size and are released out of the cell. In other words, our cells don’t store as much fat,” says Peter Light, PhD, senior author of the study, who is a professor of pharmacology and the director of UAlberta’s Alberta Diabetes Institute, in a release....

You may want to program the thermostat in your office down a couple of degrees today, despite the more-than-chilly temperatures outside. A paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism suggests doing so could help you lose weight. Regular exposure to mildly cold temperatures help people burn more calories, according to the paper's authors, who have been studying this phenomenon for more than a decade. "Since most of us are exposed to indoor conditions 90 percent of the time, it is worth exploring health aspects of ambient temperatures," lead author Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt said. "What...

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have identified a mechanism that can give energy-storing white fat some of the beneficial characteristics of energy-burning brown fat. The findings, based on studies of mice and of human fat tissue, could lead to new strategies for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes. The study was published August 2 in the online edition of the journal Cell. Humans have two types of fat tissue: white fat, which stores excess energy in the form of triglycerides, and brown fat, which is highly efficient at dissipating stored energy as heat. Newborns have a relative abundance of...

Fat people have less than thin people. Older people have less than younger people. Men have less than younger women. It is brown fat, actually brown in color, and its great appeal is that it burns calories like a furnace... --snip-- The brown fat also kept its subjects warm. The more brown fat a man had, the colder he could get before he started to shiver. Brown fat, Dr. Carpentier and Jan Nedergaard, Dr. Cannon’s husband, wrote in an accompanying editorial, “is on fire.” On average, Dr. Carpentier said, the brown fat burned about 250 calories over three hours. But...

Scientists have discovered a biological switch that gives energy-storing white fat the characteristics of energy-burning brown fat. The findings could lead to new strategies for treating obesity. The animal study by researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center shows that the change is due to the activation of a nerve and biochemical pathway that begins in the hypothalamus, an area of the brain involved in energy balance, and ends in white fat cells. This pathway, called the hypothalamic-adipocyte axis, also induces brown-fat-like cells within masses of white fat. The white-to-brown fat transformation occurs when animals are placed in an...

Scientists say they have found a way to turn body fat into a better type of fat that burns off calories and weight. The US Johns Hopkins team made the breakthrough in rats but believe the same could be done in humans, offering the hope of a new way to treat obesity. Modifying the expression of a protein linked to appetite not only reduced the animals' calorie intake and weight, but also transformed their fat composition. "Bad" white fat became "good" brown fat, Cell Metabolism journal reports. Brown fat is abundant in babies, which they use as a power source...

For more than 30 years, scientists have been intrigued by brown fat, a cell that acts like a furnace, consuming calories and generating heat. Rodents, unable to shiver effectively to keep warm, use brown fat instead. So do human infants, who do not shiver very well. But it was generally believed that humans lose brown fat after infancy, no longer needing it once the shivering response kicks in. That belief, three groups of researchers report, is wrong. Their papers, appearing Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, indicate that nearly every adult has little blobs of brown fat that...