Scientists have discovered that stimulation of a particular kind of pain receptor — through cold exposure — may help the body to produce more energy-burning brown fat calls, offering the potential for new therapeutic treatments for obesity.
How Cold Exposure Combats Obesity
The body’s fat cells are divided into two types, white and brown fat, so called because of their respective colours. White fat is the main kind as is found under the skin and around the internal organs. White fat provides an energy reservoir, offers insulation and protection from trauma, and also plays an important role in the proper functioning of the endocrine (hormonal) system. When people are overweight or obese, it is an excess of white fat that they have.
Brown fat, by contrast, is derived from muscular tissue and contains large numbers of mitochondria, which produce energy and give the cells their brown colour. Because brown fat produces energy – and therefore heat – these cells actually help you to maintain a healthy weight. Although brown fat tissue decreases generally as we age, with babies having the most, adults who are lean and active tend to have more than those who overweight and sedentary.
According to a new study, published in Nature Metabolism, Trpv+ cells, which are linked to pain and temperature sensation in the body, can stimulate the production of brown fat cells. The researchers believe that stimulating these special Trpv+ cells could help obese people to burn more energy and thus lose weight.
“The capacity of brown and beige fat cells to burn fuel and produce heat, especially upon exposure to cold temperatures, have long made them an attractive target for treating obesity and other metabolic disorders,” said researcher Yu-Hua Tseng. “And yet, the precise origins of cold-induced brown adipocytes and mechanisms of action have remained a bit of a mystery.”
The ‘Iceman’ Wim Hof, famous for his feats of cold exposure
In recent years, cold exposure has been gaining a lot of attention as a means to increase the body’s metabolic rate and restore vitality. No wellness guru’s routine in 2021 would be complete without ice baths and cold showers. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is perhaps the most high profile devotee of daily cold showers, as part of a morning routine regularly described with terms such as ‘bizarre’ and ‘insane’.
If new ways can be found to stimulate these temperature-sensitive proteins using drugs, as the researchers believe, then overweight people could very soon be experiencing the metabolic benefits of cold exposure – without the need for an ice-cold bath or shower.
We have previously written on cold exposure potentially boosting your basal metabolic rate in our article on how to accelerate fat loss.
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