This Fat-Burning Molecule Could Help Fight Obesity
A fat-burning molecule that can potentially help the country’s obesity problem has been identified.
With their findings recently published in Nature, a team of researchers from the University of Bonn, Germany, has identified brown fat cells as a new potential treatment for obesity.
Most mammals, including humans, have two types of fat cells: white fat cells that store energy and brown fat cells that turn that energy into heat by burning it. Tanks to modern conveniences like central heating and energy-rich diets, the brown fat cells are rarely needed anymore.
This leads to an accumulation of white fat cells, resulting in weight gain.
In a cell study, the researchers discovered that if the brown fat cells get subjected to stress, they secrete large quantities of a natural purine called inosine. Inosine could activate other brown fat cells to start burning energy and even convert some white fat cells into brown fat cells.
The researchers investigated the effect of inosine in mice and found higher energy use. The mice also developed more brown fat cells.
In addition, the mice treated with inosine while on a high-fat diet lost a lot of weight.
Per the researchers, this could indicate the potential use of inosine as a treatment for obesity.
According to the researchers, this study is a step towards finding a potential treatment for obesity, and further research is research to establish it.
Dr. Alexander Pfeifer, from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Bonn, said that a pill alone is unlikely to be the world’s solution to the obesity pandemic, but it will certainly help.
Based on data provided by the World Health Organization, the obesity rate worldwide has tripled since 1975. In the U.S. alone, more than 40% of adults suffer some form of obesity, while 73% of adults are deemed overweight.
Obesity and being overweight are two of the risk factors for developing life-altering health conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, and a number of cancers.
