It should also be noted that scientists distinguish between two types of thermogenesis:
- Contractile - skeletal muscle contractions are used to generate heat, resulting in shivering and chills.
- Non-contractile - brown fat takes an active part in this process.
Brown adipose tissue - what is it?
There are two types of fatty tissue in our body: brown and white. Although today scientists believe that there is a third type, called beige fat, we will talk about it at the end of this article. The fat that humanity constantly struggles with when trying to lose weight is white, and it is quite well studied. This cannot be said with regard to brown adipose tissue, and there is not much information about it yet.
Of course, in human body there is nothing good or bad, and for this reason such a division is very arbitrary. White adipose tissue contains energy reserves, and brown adipose tissue burns them if necessary. By the way, it has a brown color due to the presence of mitochondria in it.
Brown adipose tissue was first discovered in animals and is highly developed in species that hibernate in winter. This is due to the fact that during this period the metabolic rate decreases sharply and contractile thermogenesis is impossible under such conditions. In addition, brown fat also participates in the process of awakening animals from hibernation, contributing to an increase in body temperature.
Previously, scientists were sure that brown fat is present only in the body of infants and thanks to it the child can adapt to new living conditions outside the womb. In infants, brown fat accounts for about five percent of total body weight. Thanks to brown adipose tissue, a baby can avoid hypothermia in the first time after birth, which is the main cause of death in premature babies. Scientists have determined that due to more brown fat, infants are less susceptible to cold than adults.
We have already said that brown adipose tissue contains many mitochondria, as well as a special protein compound UCP1, which can quickly be extracted from fatty acids thermal energy without using ATP for this. As you know, lipids contained in fat cells are reserve material for the production of ATP. If your baby needs to stay warm or needs large number energy for other purposes, then brown adipose tissue quickly oxidizes fats to the state of fatty acids. After this, they are quickly converted into energy thanks to UCP1.
All this leads to rapid fat burning, and the body begins to rapidly lose weight. For this process to continue continuously, the child must breathe and eat. With age, this mechanism begins to work less efficiently. Approximately 14 days after birth, the process of contractile thermogenesis is already activated in the child.
However, brown fat is present in adults and can be activated by cold.
Effectiveness of brown fat in adults
The adult human body contains no more than two percent brown fat. In experiments with animals, it was found that stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system enhances the performance of brown adipose tissue. However, this requires that two additional conditions be met. Firstly, animals must be adapted to cold, and secondly, exposure to cold is necessary on the body.
One experiment found that brown fat, when activated, can expend about 300 watts of energy per kilogram of body weight. For a person weighing 80 kilos, the energy consumption will be 24 kilowatts. For comparison, at rest, an average of about one kilowatt is consumed.
Brown adipose tissue is capable of very active burning of fats and during this process oxidation of white fat cells occurs, after which the resulting fatty acids are transported to brown adipose tissue. adipose tissue. Scientists have discovered that thermogenesis caused by brown fat is caused by eating excess food.
During the study, one group of experimental rats was fed simple food, while the second was given tasty food. As a result, representatives of the second group, when consuming 80 percent more food, increased their body weight by about a quarter, which can be considered a weak indicator. But these animals sharply increased their oxygen consumption, and also approximately tripled their reserves of brown fat.
Scientists now suggest that brown fat has great potential and could be very beneficial for people suffering from diabetes and obesity. In its active state, brown fat is able to burn large amounts of body fat reserves and increase the consumption of glucose in the blood. It should also be said that fat people the amount of brown fat is less compared to normal condition and its activity is much lower.
And in conclusion, a few words should be said about beige fat. Beige adipose tissue has the same thermogenic properties as beige adipose tissue. Scientists suggest that in terms of functionality, beige fat is located between white and brown. It is possible that an adult has a large supply of beige fat rather than brown fat. It is probably for this reason that the stimulants that cause activation of brown adipose tissue in animals do not affect people.
Scientists continue to research in this area and it is possible that the brown fat present in the body of infants turns into beige with age and special stimulants are needed to activate the receptors of this tissue.
Learn more about brown adipose tissue in this video:
Adipose tissue refers to connective tissues with special properties. Develops from mesenchyme. After birth, renewal occurs due to adventitial cells.
There are two types of adipose tissue: white and brown. Brown adipose tissue is characteristic only of early childhood. In adults, it may be located in the mediastinum, along the aorta. White adipose tissue is found in subcutaneous fat, in the omentum, and in the stroma internal organs, orbits.
White adipose tissue consists of adipocytes (lipocytes) containing one large drop of fat. Lipocytes have a round shape, in the center there is a large drop of fat, and around there is a narrow rim of cytoplasm containing mitochondria, the Golgi complex, the ER and the rod-shaped nucleus.
Cells brown adipose tissue contain small droplets of fatty inclusions, many mitochondria with lamellar cristae. Mitochondria are different here small sizes, dense matrix, expanded intermembrane space. Such mitochondria are able to actively take up water and swell, while with the help of the thermogenin protein, the uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation is enhanced and heat is released. In the center of the cell is a rounded nucleus containing euchromatin. The brown color of the fabric is given by iron-containing pigments - mitochondrial cytochromes. Brown adipose tissue cells are surrounded by a lotnumerous capillaries.
This photograph (Figure 20) shows a fragment of a brown adipose tissue adipocyte containing a section of cytoplasm and part of the nucleus. It can be seen that the nucleus is located in the center of the cell, has a round shape, and contains euchromatin. Pores are visible in the karyolemma. Mitochondria with lamellar cristae are numerous. Lipid inclusions are filled with homogeneous content.
Brown adipose tissue is involved in thermoregulation.
White adipose tissue - ensures absorption from the blood, synthesis and accumulation of neutral lipids. Performs trophic function related to providing energy reserve to water reserve in the body.
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Figure 21 - Osteocyte (10,000x magnification):
core; 2 - cytoplasm; 3 - plasmalemma;
4 - process of osteocyte; 5 - lacuna
Osteocyte
Osteocytes- these are mature, highly differentiated bone tissue cells. They have a branched shape, a dark compact nucleus and weakly basophilic cytoplasm. Some osteocytes have developed membrane structures, others are located on various stages destruction.
Osteocytes are located in bone cavities- gaps. Their thin processes pass in the bone tubules that penetrate the ground substance. With the help of these tubules, the exchange of substances between osteocytes and blood occurs. Osteocytes do not divide but participate in metabolic processes, renewal of intercellular structures and maintenance of ionic balance. Osteocyte function comes down to participating in exchange and transport about cessah And regulation of mineral composition bone tissue.
The electron diffraction pattern (Figure 21) shows the structures of bone tissue: cell and intercellular substance:
1. Osteocyte lies in a cell (lacuna). In addition to the osteocyte body, the lacuna contains an amorphous component of the intercellular substance, which communicates with the fluid in the bone tubules. Outside the cell there is a highly mineralized electron-dense intercellular substance. The cell has a process form. The processes lie in the bone tubules. Two processes are visible.
Core The osteocyte follows the shape of the cell body. Nucleoli are not visible in the nucleus, heterochromatin predominates (the activity of reading information from DNA, and therefore synthesis, is low).
Cytoplasm osteocyte scanty. Around the core, single cisterns and bubbles are visible.
2. Due to strong mineralization intercellular substance does not allow electrons to pass through and looks completely black. Since the osteocyte does not synthesize intercellular substance, there is no non-mineralized bone tissue in this electron diffraction pattern.
Figure 22 - Fragment of striated muscle fiber
(13,000x magnification):
S - sarcomere; A - anisotropic disk; I - isotropic disk;
Z - telophragm; H - light stripe in the center of the A-disk
in the middle of which runs the M-line (mesophragm)
Fragment of striated muscle fiber
The electron diffraction pattern (Figure 22) shows a fragment of the myosimplast. Muscle fiber- is a structural and functional unit of the striated skeletal muscle tissue, which develops from the myotomes of the somites of the mesoderm.
Each fiber is covered sarcolemma, consisting of two layers: inner - plasma membranes and external - basement membrane, into which reticular fibers are woven. Numerous nuclei occupy a peripheral position. Sarcoplasm contains inclusions of myoglobin and glycogen, free ribosomes in the form of polysomes. There are lysosomes, many mitochondria, a well-developed agranular ER (Ca++ depot), and no cell center. Triad is a complex of one invagination of the plasmalemma (T-tubule) and two cisterns of the agranular EPS (L-tubule). Provides excitation from the plasmalemma to the EPS membranes.
The main volume of sarcoplasm is occupied by the contractile apparatus - myofibrils, which are special-purpose organelles. Myofibrils consist of myofilaments arranged in parallel rows. Myofilaments are filaments of contractile proteins. Thin filaments contain actin, tropomyosin, troponin. Thick filaments are made up of myosin. The ordered arrangement of myofilaments gives the myofibril a transverse striation (regularly alternating dark and light discs are visible).
Sarcomere- this is the structural and functional unit of the myofibril, the area between the telophragms (Figure 23.1).
1
Figure 23.1 - Sarcomere of striated muscle fiber
(175,000x magnification):
1 - mesophragm; 2 - thick myosin filaments;
3 - thin actin myofilaments; 4 - Z-telophragm;
5 - part 1-disc; 6 - M-line; 7 - A-disk; 8 - sarcomere
(toshss (sssss
filaments") fnlamta You)
Figure 23.2 - Scheme of the structure of myofilaments
Sarcomere of striated muscle fiber
The electron diffraction pattern (Figures 23.1, 23.2) shows a sarcomere - a structural and functional unit of the myofibril of striated muscle tissue.
Sarcomere- this is part of the myofibril between the telophragms (Z-lines). The sarcomere formula is 1/2 I-disc + A-disc +1/2 I-disc. The crosslinking line of adjacent sarcomeres (Z-line) consists of the proteins alpha-actinin, desmin, and vimentin.
Myofibrils consist of myofilaments arranged in parallel rows. Myofilaments- these are threads of contractile proteins. Thin filaments - actin, tropomyosin, troponin. Thick filaments - myosin. The ordered arrangement of myofilaments gives the myofibril a transverse striation, i.e., regularly alternating dark and light discs are visible.
In polarized light dark rims detect birefringence (anisotropic, A-discs). There is a light stripe in the middle of the A-disc H-strip. There are only thick myosin filaments, which are attached in the center of the A-disc to M-lines (mesophragm)
Light wheels called isotropic(I-disks). 1-discs consist only of thin filaments. A telophragm is visible in the center of the disk (Z- line). This is the site of attachment of thin filaments.
During contraction, thin actin filaments extend deep between the myosin filaments and move toward the midline. In this case, the width of the I-disc and H-band decreases, but the A-disc does not change.
Figure 24 - Differences in structure and configuration
intercalated disks of the heart muscle
(76,000x magnification):
A - intercalary disc in the atrial myocardium;
B - intercalary disc in the ventricular myocardium;
B - layered structures such as desmosomes of the intercalary discs of the ventricles
Brown fat (Brown Adipose Tissue) mediates thermogenesis or heat production by burning fat. Obese people tend to have significantly lower amounts of brown fat compared to white fat.
Its cells have an exceptional feature - they contain a lot of mitochondria (organelles responsible for storing energy in the cell). In the mitochondria of brown fat cells there is a special protein, UCP1, which instantly converts fatty acids into heat, bypassing the ATP synthesis phase.
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In the laboratory, fat cells were exposed to irisin. Under its influence, the activity of another protein increased, which converted white fat in brown.
Brown fat helps the body burn as many calories as possible rather than storing them as reserves in hidden places around the waist or hips.
In addition, brown fat has a positive effect on other aspects metabolic process: insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. It is these processes that help prevent obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The transformation of regular fat into brown fat after exercise was first observed in mice. In a recent study, the same effect was observed in humans.
The benefits from the body's production of irisin do not end there. Scientists have also found that when mixed with stem cells in adipose tissue (young fat cells that have not reached a mature state), irisin turns it not into standard adipose tissue, but into something different. Under the influence of the hormone, stem cells become a completely different type of tissue, which compacts the structure and makes them stronger.
Another interesting fact. In a sample of adipose tissue with added irisin, the amount of standard white fat is 20-60% less than in a sample without the addition of the hormone. It is worth noting that the experiments were carried out on samples of human tissue, and not on the person himself. Next step- repeat the experiment on humans to finally confirm the effect of irisin in real life, and not in laboratory conditions.
This effect of irisin on our body can be considered an additional incentive for training, even if the research data is not 100% confirmed. And while Dr. Young and his colleagues will work on evidence within the walls of the university, we can continue to work on our bodies in the sports club.
There are two types of fat in the human orgasm: brown and white. Brown fat is most abundant in newborns. It helps them keep warm. In fact, this is the main function of brown fat deposits: to generate heat by burning calories. Obviously, for the process of losing weight, this work of brown fat is extremely important.
It is curious that the places where brown fat accumulates different people different. There are areas of the body where brown fat can be found with most likely(neck and shoulders). However, in some individuals, this type of fat deposits can be found on the chest and lower spine.
People with high content brown fat show more high speed metabolism, more correct level blood sugar, more high sensitivity to insulin compared to those who do not have enough brown fat.
You can see the diagram for losing weight using brown fat in the figure.
To set excess weight and leads to obesity long period positive energy balance. Consumption of food leads to the accumulation of energy, and physical activity and the metabolic process leads to its consumption.
Brown fat present in the body converts excess energy into heat, preventing it from being stored as white fat. Of course, the process of this transformation goes with that more effective, the more physical activity. Therefore, cold helps in losing excess weight. When a person trembles, brown fat is extremely active, it converts energy into heat, and weight loss moves forward by leaps and bounds.
Unfortunately, as we age, the amount of brown fat decreases. And it is the lack of fat deposits of this type that many scientists consider the main reason why losing weight becomes more and more difficult with age.
But not all adults have low amounts of brown fat. Currently, there are groups of people who have more brown fat than others:
- Slender people have more brown fat than fat people
- young people have more of it than older people
- in people with normal level brown fat has more sugar than those with high sugar
- women have more than men
- People taking beta blockers have less brown fat than those not on these medications.
How to increase the amount of brown fat and lose weight?
Since brown fat disappears in humans with age, in order to lose weight after 40, 50, 60 years for a woman or man, it is necessary to increase its amount. This is not easy to do, since its reduction carries natural character. However, there are ways that still make it possible to slightly increase the amount of fat that helps you lose weight.
Cold increases the amount of brown fat
Staying in a cold room, although uncomfortable, can help build brown fat. Of course, you have to be very careful with cooling the body. But there are clearly benefits from it. Some scientists even propose opening special “cold spas” that will be useful primarily for obese people.
In the meantime, such spas are not open, you can try to cool down and build up brown fat using the following methods:
- put a pack of ice (not scalding cold, of course) on top part back and chest for 30 minutes (good to do in the evening shortly before going to bed)
- drink 500 ml of cold water in the morning before breakfast (or better yet, instead of breakfast)
- cool shower or just rinse cold water to the waist.
- staying in a cool room at night (at 16 degrees), which will not only increase the amount of brown fat, but also normalize sleep, which, in turn, will help cope with the problem of excess weight.
Normalization of melatonin levels
It has been noted that the use of dietary supplements containing melatonin has a positive effect on the formation of brown fat deposits.
And this is not surprising, since it is well known that lack of sleep leads to obesity. And lack of sleep is always associated with a lack of melatonin. Because melatonin is a hormone of the pineal gland and a regulator of circadian rhythms. No wonder it is often called the “sleep hormone.”
So, anything that increases melatonin levels will also increase the amount of brown fat, helping you lose weight. That is, the first thing to do in order to lose weight after 40, 50, 60 years is to normalize your sleep. This will help increase brown fat and eliminate those health problems that lack of sleep leads to.
We talk about the benefits of activating brown adipose tissue
Brown fat allows you to burn fat; when activated, fatty acids are pumped from white adipose tissue to brown adipose tissue. Unlike its more common counterpart, which is deposited under the skin, in the omentums and capsules of internal organs, brown fat, instead of storing energy, burns it in large quantities, releasing heat.
This is thermogenesis caused by excess food consumption. N. Rothuel and M. Stock performed the following experiment. Adult rats were fed a restaurant diet, i.e., varied and tasty food. The animals' consumption of this food was 80% greater than in the control group that received regular food. At the same time, the weight of animals increased by only 27% in three weeks. Gas exchange measurements showed that well-nourished rats consumed 25% more oxygen than controls. This increase disappeared after the animals were given propanolol, a norepinephrine antagonist. During the same three weeks of experiment, the mass of brown fat increased more than threefold; the amount of thermogenin in the mitochondria increased. (It also turned out that the mutation causing obesity is accompanied by a decrease in thermogenin levels in mice.)
Brown fat improves metabolism, protects against obesity and diabetes, and improves insulin sensitivity.
Experts from the American Diabetes Association believe that brown fat contains very important potential for patients suffering from obesity and diabetes. Activated brown fat tissue can actually burn huge amounts of glucose and fat and help control blood sugar levels. It is also noteworthy that in people who are overweight, the amount of brown fat is reduced and its activity is suppressed. Currently there are new medicinal method accumulation and activation of brown fat in adults.
Effectiveness of brown adipose tissue in humans
Brown fat makes up no more than 1-2% of body weight. However, stimulation of this tissue by the sympathetic nervous system during cooling of animals previously adapted to cold increases the heat production of brown fat to such an extent that it can reach one third of all additional heat generated in the body. In its activated state, brown fat can spend up to 300 watts (this is the figure of another study, some say about 400) per kilogram of adult weight.
This is 21 Kilowatts per 70 kg person. For comparison, a person at rest burns about 1 Kilowatt of energy in an average weight person. Do you get the point? By activating brown fat, you can lie on the couch and burn twenty times more energy than before.
Brown adipose tissue: activation protocol
As with other aspects of health, there are four rules for brown fat: light rule, temperature rule, load (stress) rule, food rule. Let's figure out how we can activate brown fat.
So first we'll look at these rules and then we'll discuss what not to do to avoid reducing brown fat tissue activity.
Temperature rule
The most important trigger for the activation of brown adipose tissue is a decrease in temperature environment(hardening). The essence of our biology is that there is no need to store fat when you need free heat to survive)).
1. Hooray for a contrasting shower!
As recent studies have shown, for these purposes it is enough to lower the room temperature by a few degrees from normal. Also, perhaps brisk walking in a winter time year. The study found that the number of calorie-burning brown adipose tissue cells increased as ambient temperature decreased. In people with higher levels of brown fat, its activation by cold improves energy metabolism.
Thus, in a study of 5 volunteers whose bedroom temperature was set at 19C, a 30-40% increase in brown adipose tissue and its calorie-burning activity was demonstrated. At the same time, an increase in room temperature to 26C led to a decrease in brown fat content. 19 degrees is a fairly comfortable temperature, you can compensate for it with a warmer blanket (you will still breathe cooler air).
2. We sleep in a well-ventilated room at a temperature of 19-20 degrees.
In another Japanese study of 12 people, young people with low amounts of brown fat were asked to spend 2 hours a day in a room with a temperature of about 17C for 6 weeks. At the start of this 6-week study, young adults burned an average of about 108 extra calories at 17C (compared to the number of calories burned at normal temperatures). ambient temperature), and at the end of the study, about 289 kcal were additionally burned. Please note, this is only 2 hours a day! Dr. Matthias Bluher, in his experiments, placed people daily in the cold (40C) for 10 minutes, as a result of which after 4 weeks they lost an average of 3-4 kilograms.
3. Reduce the temperature in the rooms.
The principle of cooling works for everyone! The classical school of hardening offers many hardening options. Staying and playing sports in the open air are widely used as hardening procedures. fresh air, and also water treatments(rubbing, dousing, bathing, contrast shower). One of the most common types of hardening is walking barefoot. Cold water takes away body heat 32 times faster than cold air. Swimming or walking in water significantly increases heat loss, by more than 50%.
With long breaks in hardening, its effect decreases or is lost completely (we will not classify winter swimming as hardening, especially if a person climbs into an ice hole once a month). You can also make sure not to wear excess clothing on the street and at home, and take “air baths” at home, which are safer than dousing.
Staying at night in a cool room (at 16 degrees), which will not only increase the amount of brown fat, but also normalize sleep, which, in turn, will help cope with the problem of excess weight.
You need to start hardening (any of the proposed types) only after visiting and checking a doctor, since hardening is a training, not a treatment, and for people with a disease and weak immunity such procedures may be contraindicated.
Hardening should be considered as an attempt to bring a person’s lifestyle closer to the natural one, to prevent the innate adaptive abilities of the body from fading away. Of course, lowering room temperature will not be a panacea for excess weight, but it can be important additional step along with physical activity and proper nutrition.
Research has shown that cold may even be more effective than exercise! Australian scientists have discovered that shivering from cold is similar to longer periods of time. physical activity, stimulates the conversion of energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat. Brown fat cells may become a new therapeutic target to combat obesity, fatty liver disease and diabetes.
The main principle of safety! Cold adaptation is mediated by receptors on the surface of the skin rather than by deep cold receptors in the core. This is the cold sensory afferent cycle. Hypothermia of the core of the body is very dangerous!
Load (stress rule)
Physical activity trains our muscles, makes them stronger, while burning calories. As a matter of fact, this applies not only to muscles, but to any tissue in general: intense work requires energy obtained from the breakdown of fats. At the molecular level, this is accompanied by the activation of a number of regulatory proteins - transcription factors, which in turn “wake up” genes responsible for restructuring metabolism in cells and tissues.
It has long been known that during physical activity, energy expenditure increases disproportionately: more energy is expended than is required to perform exercise or work. Physical activity activates brown adipose tissue, which is facilitated by irisin and the transcription factor PGC1-α.
Recent studies have shown that physical exercise entail the release of a previously unknown hormone irisin (FNDC5 gene), which causes white fat to turn brown and prevents obesity. The hormone serves as a transmitter of information between various tissues of the body (which is why it was named after the ancient Greek goddess Iris, or Iris, the messenger of Olympus).
One recent study showed that irisin circulates in the blood plasma of all people studied, and its concentration in young athletes is several times higher than in middle-aged obese women. In turn, this leads to an increase in the expression of a number of neuroprotective genes in brain cells, in particular, the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) increases. Apparently, muscle training is associated with a system involved in the protection of cognitive functions, and FNDC5 (like BDNF, as well as PGC-1α) are important mediators of these processes.
It was also known that under a load of skeletal muscles the protein content of the transcription factor PGC1-α increases. At the same time, it was known that when the amount of PGC1 protein in the muscles increases during physical activity, this has a beneficial effect not only on the muscles themselves, but also on the entire body. Transgenic mice with increased levels of PGC1 do not develop obesity and diabetes in old age, and they live longer than usual. First, it was found that after 3 weeks of wheel running or swimming, the same transgenic mice (with increased levels of PGC1) sharply (25-65 times) increase the amount of thermogenin in subcutaneous white fat, and the number of “brown” adipocytes there increases.
Light rule
Researchers from Leiden University have found a very simple way to keep brown fat in good shape - it turns out that you just need to sit less in the evening under artificial light. It is known that stimulation of brown fat occurs with the participation of the β3 adrenergic receptor - when it is activated, cells burn more lipids and produce more heat. Patrick Rensen and his colleagues found that if mice are kept under artificial light for 16 or even 24 hours a day, their receptor activity decreases, and accordingly, brown fat cells begin to work less well, and lipid molecules are sent into storing white fat. Nothing like this happened to mice whose daylight hours lasted the standard 12 hours. (In parentheses, we note that mice are crepuscular animals, that is, daylight hours for them are like night for us.)
As a result, mice that were kept in the light for a long time accumulated 25-50% more fat, although animals from all groups were fed the same and their physical activity was also the same.
Of course, the issue here is not the artificial light itself, but the circadian rhythm, which is spoiled due to illumination at inopportune times: the biological clock says that it should have been night long ago, but the eyes continue to see light. Of course, we will still fall asleep, albeit in artificial light, but this will still be reflected in the biological clock. It is known that even if you go to bed at right time, then all the same, the bright lighting that accompanies us to the last can in itself cause harm.
Well, the fact that a disrupted circadian rhythm is associated with obesity has long been confirmed both by experiments and clinical studies. According to some data, too much daylight hours provokes obesity even more than poor nutrition. And, apparently, the effect here is not least due to the improper functioning of brown fat. His interaction with biological clock in the brain is carried out through the sympathetic nervous system: if brown adipose tissue was disconnected from sympathetic nerve pathways, then the effect was the same as in circadian rhythm disorder - brown cells stopped burning lipids.
Whether there is the same relationship between the activity of brown fat and the circadian rhythm in humans will be shown by further research. Similar results were obtained two years ago by specialists from Vanderbilt University, who discovered that insulin sensitivity in cells depends on the time of day, and that when the circadian rhythm is disrupted, cells begin to live on glucose alone, storing fats in reserve. Result - overweight. These experiments were also performed on animals; on the other hand, we repeat, medical statistics show that in people, a disturbed circadian rhythm is often accompanied by various bad physiological effects, including in metabolism. In general, those who want to lose weight can be advised not only to eat right, but also to go to bed on time - or at least not to abuse all sorts of gadgets before bed. I wrote in detail about blue light earlier:
Thus, anything that increases melatonin levels will also increase the amount of brown fat, helping you lose weight. That is, the first thing to do in order to lose weight after 40, 50, 60 years is to normalize your sleep. This will help increase brown fat and eliminate those health problems that lack of sleep leads to.
Food rule
Constant rises in insulin or increased level Insulin suppresses the functioning of brown adipose tissue. Grossness is one of the manifestations of insulin resistance. Therefore, compliance simple rules: Avoiding snacking, taking breaks between meals, and reducing carbohydrates will help you restore the activity of brown adipose tissue.
Who has low brown fat levels?
Unfortunately, it is still difficult to measure the level of brown adipose tissue. Previously, researchers took biopsies of fat tissue to determine the presence of brown fat cells, but thanks to advances in imaging diagnostic techniques It has become possible to identify brown fat without traumatizing the human body. To determine brown adipose tissue, PET-CT (positron emission tomography with computed tomography). Let’s note right away: you don’t need to do this!
The risk group includes:
1. Age: young people have more of it than older people. However, with age, the amount of brown adipose tissue decreases. Therefore, in adults, brown fat makes up only a small portion of total fat.
2. Overweight people. It is not clear whether this is a cause or an effect. But scientists have not been able to determine why. It's not clear whether skinny people more slender, because they have more brown (active) component, or fat ones do not “freeze” so much due to the presence of an additional layer of white fat.
3. Impaired insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation disorders. People with normal sugar levels have more brown fat than those with high sugar levels.
4. Women have more brown fat than men.
5. People taking beta blockers have less brown fat than those not on these medications. Beta blockers are used in the treatment of hypertension.
6. The activity of brown fat decreases in case of problems with the thyroid gland.
Thoughts for the future
Cold environments trigger a long-buried epigenetic program in all mammals that allows WAT to be converted into brown adipose tissue (BAT) to burn calories as free heat without generating ATP or increasing ROS (reactive oxygen species). This allows us to age more slowly while increasing our metabolism and ability to run on fewer calories while burning fat to make heat to keep us warm.
We reduce our body fat stores while also improving body composition! Low temperatures also increase IGF-1 mRNA, enormously increasing the release of growth hormone. This increases the efficiency of autophagy and rapidly improves muscle and cardiac function. The cold does all this without exercise!
Cold also increases GnRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone) and promotes reproductive activity. This is important in the cold, as most mammals become pregnant during the winter months. This is where the connection with HCG comes into play for mammals. Leptin controls all egg and placental function in all mammals. The lower your leptin levels, the more “alive and healthy” your pregnancy will be. Doctors know about the strong connection between leptin and insulin and polycystic ovary syndrome! Cold conditions may also improve fertility because cold reduces the amount of leptin while its receptor becomes hypersensitive.
