Some Fat is Good Fat

There is a special kind of fat that rather than storing calories it burns it. It has been known for sometime that babies, young children and small mammals have brown adipose tissue called brown fat. Brown fat burns calories to help stay warm in colder temperatures. Throughout the years scientist have been skeptical that adults retain a significant amount of brown fat. However, according to three studies that were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, adults probably do have brown fat.

Brown fat could be important in the development of all the new diet and obesity drugs in the future. Drugs could be developed that fire up brown fat activity and help people burn calories faster. Early studies suggest that brown fat plays an important role in whether we burn or store the food we eat. Scientist knew about brown fat for decades, but where unable to locate it on adults. However, newer technology in nuclear medicine found tissue that look like fat, but had high metabolic activity. It was in fact brown fat.

People with brown fat tend to been very different than people who don’t have brown fat. They found people who were younger and leaner were more likely to have brown fat, and older people, the obese, and people taking heart drugs called beta blockers, were less likely to have brown fat. They found people who were lean had more brown fat that was more active, and people who were overweight had less brown fat and it was less active. Also, tests that were run in the winter had the most brown fat, while test done in the summer had the least brown fat. Test done in the fall and spring had intermediate amounts of brown fat.

Alex Pavidapha Group C

UPDATE:

Brown fat is an actual fat. Infants have more brown fat than adults. Brown fat has a lot of capillaries. Brown fat also mitochondria, which is used to produce engery, and is the reason why brown fat is brown. Brown fat in infants is located on the back, along the spine and shoulders. In adults they have found brown fat right above the collar bone and neck. Research in using brown fat as a weight loss treatment is still in the works. But they have been able to stimulate brown fat growth in mice.