Brown adipose tissue is a good fat present in the body from birth that may decline by age.
What does it do?
Brown fat is essential for the healthy metabolic functioning and body temperature of our body as it aides in burning extra calories and bad cholesterol that gets stored in our body.
It has the potential to help with the breakdown of fats by raising your RMR.
Research
Some of the more prominent studies out lately:
1. Cold acclimation recruits brown fat (2013)
Subjects were subjected to a 10 day cold acclimation protocol ( 15-16 deg C for 6 hours a day) and while white adipose tissue did not TURN into brown, it made it subjects slower to respond to a cold suit.
2. Increasing the amount of brown fat or functioning of it could be a safe therapy for obesity (Seale and Lizar, 2009)
What does this mean?
An overall analysis of the issue offers certain hints that the conditions of overweight or obesity increases the chance of declining brown fat from the body. In overweight people, bad white fats are the main ingredient that leads to various cardiovascular disorders. Brown fat was once believed to be present only in infants or babies that were known to decline with age. But according to the recent studies, these brown fats are still processed by adults who are thinner. People using certain drug like beta blockers for blood pressure are also found to contain less brown fat than others.
The studies have revealed the presence of brown fat in adults also, though the amount of the fat can be influenced by factors such as natural aging, high level of obesity and even the increase of sugar levels. It is found that thin people have more brown fat deposits in their body than fat people.
With the idea of developing drugs that could trigger the formation of brown fats in the human body naturally, scientists are in the work out for challenging brown fat research. As part of their research program, they are in the hope of developing drugs that could pave for effective treatments of obesity and also diabetic conditions, especially Type 2 diabetes.
An interesting fact is that women have comparatively more brown fat deposits as compared to men, most likely due to hormone differences (2011).
Scientists are still in the quest of discovering a safe way to induce the formation of brown fats in our cells that gets activated by cold temperatures.
What can you do with all this information to increase the functioning of your brown fat?
1. Try is hot/cold shower hydrotherapy
2. Don't sleep with a blanket on
3. Turn down that thermostat about 6 degrees and start getting use to it
4. Wear less clothes to bed