Brown fat may protect you against cardiac, metabolic conditions: How is it different from white fat?

People with more brown fat have lower risk of Type-2 diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure, and coronary artery disease, according to a new study. Read on to know more about brown fat and white fat - the two main types of fat found in your body.

By: Longjam Dineshwori | | Updated: January 6, 2021 11:45 am

Women tend to have more brown fat than men.

Not all fats are bad alike and not all of them are harmful. Some fats can actually help to promote good health. For example, brown fat, also called brown adipose tissue, helps maintain your body temperature when you get too cold. While white fat stores calories, brown fat consumes glucose and burn calories. Also Read - Obesity, alcohol consumption can lower effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines

Now, a new study has revealed that people with detectable brown fat are less likely to suffer cardiac and metabolic conditions, like Type-2 diabetes and coronary artery disease. Also Read - Soft Belly Fat vs Hard Belly Fat: Which is more difficult to lose and why?

“These findings make us more confident about the potential of targeting brown fat for therapeutic benefit,” said Paul Cohen, Assistant Professor at The Rockefeller University Hospital in the US, reported IANS. Also Read - Chronic inflammation of obesity: How it affects blood vessel cells

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, has not just confirmed the health benefits of brown fat suggested by previous studies, but also discovered some unknown links.

Brown fat liked to lower risk of chronic diseases

To arrive to their conclusion, the researchers reviewed 130,000 PET scans from more than 52,000 patients and found the presence of brown fat in nearly 10 per cent of individuals. They found less prevalence of several common and chronic diseases among people with detectable brown fat. Here are the key findings from the study:

Only 4.6 per cent of people with detectable brown fat had Type-2 diabetes, compared with 9.5 per cent of people who did not have noticeable brown fat.
Among people with detectable brown fat, 18.9 per cent had abnormal cholesterol, compared to 22.2 per cent in those without brown fat.
People with brown fat have lower risk of hypertension, congestive heart failure, and coronary artery disease. This is something that had not been observed in previous studies.

The researchers also suggested that brown fat may mitigate the negative health effects of obesity. Obese people are known to have higher risk of heart and metabolic conditions. But the prevalence of these conditions was found to be similar between obese people who have brown fat and non-obese people.

According to Cohen, it seems like brown fat protects obese people from the harmful effects of white fat.

The researchers noted that the role of brown fat in other conditions like hypertension, which is tightly connected to the hormonal system, is more mysterious. But they are considering the possibility that brown fat tissue may participate in hormonal signalling to other organs as well.

Scientists hope that stimulating brown fat activity may hold the key to treating obesity and related conditions.

Brown fat vs White fat

Brown fat and white fat are two main types of fat found in your body. They are made of different things. White fat is made of big droplets of lipids, or fatty acids but cells in brown fat are packed with mitochondria, which are rich in iron. It is this high iron content that this gives brown fat its dark red to tan color. Mitochondria take in nutrients and break them down to make energy.

Babies are born with a lot of brown fat behind their shoulder blades and this fat acts as a built-in heater. You lose most of your brown fat as you grow older. But you hold on to some of it in the neck, collarbone, kidneys, and spinal cord. Usually, lean people have more brown fat than overweight people. Women also tend to have more brown fat than men.

White fat builds up when you take in extra calories and this type of fat comprises most of the fat in your body. White fat stores extra calories to use when you don’t get enough energy from food. Typically, white fat is collected in your thighs, hips, and stomach. Too much white fat in the belly can raise is associated with increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Published : January 5, 2021 5:44 pm | Updated:January 6, 2021 11:45 am

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