What color is your fat?
Part two
Aaron Cypess’ research has continued to study the differences in amount of brown fat in adults. The youthful are not the only people who are blessed with this brown stuff. He has proven thin people of all ages have a higher content of brown fat. He believes that due to the lack of insulation (from less muscle mass); the body needs the brown fat to stay warm. The whole relationship of the temperature component to brown fat amount was studied by Sven Enerback. As a medical geneticist at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Mr. Enerback took his group and made them stay 2 hours in a very cold room. The test subjects had light clothing and soaked their feet in ice water. The result was pretty neat! Their brown fat burned 15 times more energy than at room temperature. The researchers found active brown fat in 23 out of 24 test subjects when they were cold not when they were warm.
Animal studies in Stockholm University suggest something really neat. Mice who could not produce brown fat gained weight 50% faster than those mice that could make the fat. in 2008, their scientists began a study of mice in two controlled groups. All the mice were given the same high calorie diet. Those “white fat” mice gained weight 50% faster on the same diet as the “brown fat” mice.
Don’t want to soak your feet in ice water? Don’t want to stay in a cold house in light clothes? Can you still turn up the activity of brown fat? Here is where the medical community is becoming innovative. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Boston’s post doctoral fellow, Patrick Seale found a protein named PRDM-16, in brown fat cells. When Mr. Seal was able to stop PRDM-16, in the brown fat cells, they actually changed in to muscle. Mr. Seal is now trying to identify and isolate the gene that it turns on and off. Let’s wish him LUCK.
Another fat hero, Bruce Spiegelman, has begun to remove white fat from mice, inject PRDM-16 into the fat cells and then put them back into the mice. Will they lose weight? He thinks they will eventually!
There is a lot of communication between bone and fat. The US FDA has approved BMP-7, in the recovery for spinal surgery. It is found to increase the production of brown fat. The surgical patients given this therapy are being studied to see if they will lose weight because of the addition of BMP-7 in to their therapy.
Could there be a “Brown Fat PILL?” Take the pill and magically you experience a boost in activity of brown fat. Scientists say YES! But, the pill will only boost the body’s ability to burn calories. With the science advancements it may be possible to burn an extra 500 cal/day.

The pill isn’t ready. Don’t like the cold therapy? So how do we start to invigorate and produce brown fat? Keep your house cold; go outside during the winter; walk and run outside to boost your metabolism.
My mom always said to go outside and play all winter. She was right again!