Brown Fat Cells: The Secret To Combating Obesity?

Even though it is still a largely esoteric part of the human anatomy, does brown fat cells now hold the key in our battle against obesity?

By: Ringo Bones

Just look at every survey and study made since the mid-1990s about the incidence of obesity, chances are figures show that up to 33 percent of Americans are now obese. Worse still, her “poorer” neighbor south-of-the-border had shown an increasing rise in childhood obesity cases since the mid 1990s. Given that a proper diet and exercise alone seems powerless to halt the slowly - but so even perceptively – increasing cases of obesity, can another much healthier tactic be used to end this scourge of civilized mankind?

Since their scrutiny by medical researchers, brown fat cells had been found out to be active in infants as a way to keep them warm, but brown fat cells later turn off metabolically in adulthood. During the 1980s, MRI imaging technicians used to mistake dormant brown fat cells of adult patients being examined as cancer cells for their cancer-like imaging result in a typical MRI scanning session. Further studies in the 1990s had also shown that brown fat cells had kept our Stone-Age ancestors warm but our largely indoor lifestyle could have metabolically atrophied the main function of our brown fat cells – which is burning food sourced calories to keep us warm.

Dr. Norbert Stefan, an endocrinologist at Tubingen State University, specializes in the treatment of morbidly obese persons and persons with thyroid deficiency that made them morbidly obese. As latest medical research have shown that brown fat cells are packed with mitochondria and are a regional main hub for capillaries that controls our body’s core temperature, Dr. Stefan’s pioneering new method of curing obesity centers around increasing the metabolic rate of largely dormant brown fat cells in adults to make them burn more calories even when living out our present-day largely sedentary lifestyle.

A hormone treatment that’s used to be given to people with thyroid disorders had recently been trialed to activate the dormant brown fat cells in adults stricken with obesity, though the. Preliminary results have shown that more than 90 percent of the trial participants had their overall weight reduced down to much more healthier levels than before – especially those patients who also added dieting and exercise to the treatment. Could revitalizing our atrophied brown fat cells be the key to ending the scourge of obesity in out increasingly sedentary 21^st Century lifestyle? 

Obesity: A Rapidly Growing Public Health Crisis?

Used to be confined to affluent nations, but now obesity is spreading to developing nations that a generation ago barely has enough to eat. Will proper diet and exercise reverse the trend?


By: Vanessa Uy


Latest trends around the world show that diseases related to overeating like obesity, cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes is on the rise. Physicians and other health consultants had time and again been extolling the virtues of regular exercise and a proper diet, but in this day and age, such regimented routines are easier said than done.

Since the dominance of the fast food industry which started in the last 40 years, the concept and the practice of a proper diet / nutrition had become an increasingly difficult routine as the years go by. Foods saturated with unhealthy levels of saturated fats and sugars while deficient in vitamins and other essential nutrients had become a staple in the fast food industry. So if one is living in a highly urbanized area - chances are - he or she will have an unhealthy diet since a “proper meal” is either too labor intensive to prepare or deemed too expensive for our urban poor brethren.

What about regular exercise? If you are particularly well off that expensive gym membership won’t be an issue for you, then you can sweat it out with your heart’s content – but first consult with your physician on the type of exercise regimen that’s right for you. But in sympathy to our urban poor brethren who can’t even walk home after leaving their workplace because this means passing through a “bad neighborhood” just highlights the issues of the difficulties of maintaining a healthy body while living in an highly urbanized environment. But if you manage to find a dietary and exercise routine that works despite the difficulties of living in an “Urban War Zone”, then good for you.

The greatest affliction affecting those who have difficulty “losing those pounds” is type-2 diabetes. Type-2 diabetes results from overeating in which your pancreas can’t process the excess sugar in your bloodstream resulting from excessive caloric intake (too much food). This is different from type-1 diabetes, which is a result of a hereditary / genetic disorder when one’s own immune system destroys the part of their pancreas that produced insulin, thus requiring regular insulin shots just to stay healthy and or alive. With proper diet and exercise, one can escape the “nightmare” of type-2 diabetes. But every pound or kilo you lose can make a difference.