Research on activation of brown adipose tissue (“brown fat”) by cooling vest for weight loss pointing towards new treatments for obesity and related metabolic diseases.
While surveying exciting new discoveries about cold activated BAT (brown adipose tissue) in humans that have been published recently, an interesting parallel to the Crossfit spawned paleo diet and nutrition plan jumped out at us. If you are not familiar with it, BAT, or brown fat, is now being feverishly studied for its newly discovered role in humans. Use of a cooling vest for weight loss is an exciting natural option for fighting obesity and potentially treating other metabolic disease like diabetes. In mammals, BAT has long been known to play a critical role in “non-shivering thermogenesis.” What that means is this: brown fat burns glucose to generate heat to maintain core body temperature in mammals when they are exposed to cold. It is “non-shivering” because it is only active before the body gets so cold that major muscles start to contract rapidly to generate heat. By using non-shivering thermogenesis, a mammal can maintain its normal core body temperature efficiently and comfortably. It can adapt to cold conditions long term by turning on this internal furnace and generating heat by burning glucose. That glucose can come by way of stored fat in the form of white adipose tissue (“white fat”). A unique but powerful example is the ability of bears to hibernate. This BAT furnace can supply a slow burn during the winter months fueled by the white fat stored during pre-hibernation gorging. In humans, scientists believed that BAT did not play any role beyond infancy: our “baby fat” years. However, several years ago it was discovered that BAT showed up on PET scans of some humans. Interestingly, it did not show up in PET scans of overweight and obese humans. In a way, scientists had a “paleo moment” much like the believers who have championed the paleo diet revolution. If BAT was active in lean to normal weight humans, but not in overweight to obese humans, has our world of controlled environments with central heating and staying indoors played as much a role in the obesity epidemic as fatty diets and overeating? Has our entire natural metabolism gone haywire and short-circuited? Do we need a paleo fitness and lifestyle philosophy to get us outdoors working out in the cold as some have already advocated? Several studies published in 2009 offered important evidence. In one, obese subjects were subjected to a cool room for a few hours a day. Pre- and post-exposure PET scans showed that subjects who had no visible BAT tissue now showed active BAT. Visible evidence, but more study was needed. In early 2012, a new study was published that pinpointed BAT activated by cold as being a mechanism behind an eighty percent (80%) increase in Total Energy Expenditure. Yes, that is not a typo, there was an 80% increase in caloric burn caused by non-shivering cold exposure. At Hyperwear, we like to call this phenomenon Hyper Chill™ and we are developing the best patented cooling vest for weight loss. ABC News Reports Cold Temperatures Help Weight Loss
“In summary, the present study demonstrates that a cold-exposure stimulus designed to minimize muscle-mediated shivering thermogenesis enhances BAT oxidative metabolism as well as glucose and NEFA uptake in adult humans. The enhanced BAT activity was associated with a 1.8-fold increase in whole-body energy expenditure.” Ouellet V., Labbé S. et al. J Clin Invest. 2012;122(2):545–552 doi:10.1172/JCI60433 Adipose tissue oxidative metabolism contributes to energy expenditure during acute cold exposure in humans.