You may not know: The human body contains fat that helps us lose weight

Obesity is a disease when the body accumulates more and more fat. When it reaches a certain point, its fat stops working and it develops into a disease, such as type 2 diabetes . But not all fat is bad.

Fat accumulation causes obesity called white fat , but the second form of fat (brown fat) can be used to treat obesity. Brown fat converts fuel into heat. In small animals like rats, brown fat produces heat to help them survive, even when in freezing temperatures.

Fat accumulation causes obesity called white fat.

Brown fat can burn energy miraculously. When fully activated, only 100 grams of brown fat can burn 3,400 calories a day - almost double the amount of daily human food and enough to prevent obesity quickly.

The infant's body has a lot of brown fat, but most adults have very little and, worse, it almost doesn't work. However, recent studies have shown that we can develop more brown fat, making it an attractive way to treat obesity.

The increase in brown fat in the body

Unfortunately, the only reliable way to increase the content and activity of brown fat is to live as if it were in the harsh winter without heating and warm clothes . When people are in cold weather, the body will understand that it needs more heat and the nervous system sends signals to brown fat to stimulate it to function and increase its content. But putting people in a cold room for days is impractical, not to mention it's really annoying.

Another option to stimulate brown fat is to use medicine . But brown-stimulant drugs also increase blood pressure and heart rate. It leads to side effects that cause heart attacks, especially in obese people.

The last problem with brown fat stimulation is that even if we can turn every white fat cell in our body into brown fat, it won't be helpful. Brown fat needs a good source of blood to provide all the calories it can burn. It also needs nerves to contact brown fat cells to stimulate them.

White fat (left) and brown fat (right).

BMP8b: molecule has the ability to change "game"

A few years ago, we identified a molecule in mice called BMP8b . BMP8b was found to be higher in brown fat than white fat, and its number increased when we put mice in cold environments.

And more importantly, people also have BMP8b. We found that deleting BMP8b in mouse prevents brown fat from working. Because BMP8b is found in the blood, it can be used as a medicine to increase brown fat in humans as well as stimulate its activity.

Before testing BMP8b in humans, researchers wanted to study the effect of promoting BMP8b in mice - that is, does it increase the function of brown fat? They genetically modified the white fat of mice to have as much BMP8b as brown fat of normal mice.

As a result, increasing the level of BMP8b makes white fat become browner and increase its activity. BMP8b makes mice more susceptible to signals from the nerves that activate brown fat. What is more surprising is that BMP8b also increases the number of blood vessels and the number of nerves in white and brown fat.

The combination of these factors is really interesting because BMP8b can increase brown fat in the human body to have a good fuel supply. Increasing the number of nerves in brown fat also means that any signal from the brain to activate brown fat will be amplified.

Finally, because BMP8b makes brown fat more sensitive to signals that activate it, it is possible to use drugs similar to those at lower doses - even lower than the pain level. heart.

Despite promising results, more research is needed to test whether BMP8b may alter the function of brown fat in humans.