The results of the study were published online Nov. 12 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
“Our findings suggest that making more [brown fat] or increasing its activity could have great therapeutic potential, helping increase the clearance of glucose and fatty acids and converting surplus white fat into heat, potentially lessening the risk of diabetes,” lead authors Mariette Boon and Patrick Rensen, from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, said in a journal news release.
The study authors noted that recent research has shown that 10 days of exposure to cold can boost brown fat in humans, and said that future studies should examine the effectiveness of this strategy, and other methods such as medication, in increasing brown fat activity.
Although the researchers suggested that there may be a link between lower levels of brown fat and a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, this study does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
What Is “Brown Fat?” was originally published on blackdoctor.org
