Principle

METHOD #1. Cold Thermogenesis using brown adipose.

Prof. Wayne B. Hayes, an ex-NASA scientist and a professor of University of California, explains that the calorie consuming vest, which he invented, can burn up to 500 calories a day.

Former NASA scientist and an entrepreneur Mr. William Cronise also explained that “Cold thermogenesis may be used to lose weight.”

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Microphotograph of brown adipose(left) and white adipose(right)

Humans have two types of adipose tissues. The white adipose tissue is used as a source of fuel to the muscle and it is placed around the hip and the stomach. The brown adipose tissue is used to produce heat within our body. The colder the temperature, the more quantity of brown adipose tissue will burn in your body. Therefore, when white adipose tissue changes to brown adipose tissue, it will prevent obesity. During the winter, more white adipose tissue will turn brown to keep our body warm.

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The history of researching cold thermogenesis.

During the 1960’s, it was discovered that when the body is exposed to the cold continuously, the ability to produce heat rises even during the breaks. It was also known later that brown adipose tissue was used during this process. According to Hart & Jansky’s: “Thermogenesis due to exercise and cold in warm-acclimated and cold-acclimated rats” studies, included in a Canadian physiochemistry journal, published in 1963, revealed that rats that are used to the cold produce heat without shivering and vastly improve the physical activity index. The basal metabolism during relaxation increased to 420cal per weight, showing almost twice the difference compared to the rats that were used to warm thermogenesis.

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Later, published in renowned SCIENCE magazine, 1964 edition,

“The specific tissue that is involved not only in shivering thermogenesis, but also in “non-shivering thermogenesis” is called Brown Fat, or technically Brown Adipose Tissue. Brown adipose tissue has been shown to be a strongly thermogenic effector organ in homeothermic animals exposed to cold and in hibernators during cold-induced arousal from deep hibernation. This cold-induced thermogenic response protects the animal by contributing heat to the vital organs.

– Robert smith, “Thermoregulatory and adaptive behavior of brown adipose tissue / Science, vol 146 no 3652, pp.1686=1689(1964)

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During the 1970’s, the US army found out that soldiers who were deployed to more cold area, such as Alaska, came back with more muscle mass but lower fat rate. Accordingly, in 1979, the US army found out under controlled studies that in colder weather, when exercising only a small amount for a week consumes up to 2.3kg of white adipose tissue. “When exposed to the cold and exercise lightly for a period of 2.5 hours for a week, it was shown that 0.8~2.3kg of body fat is burned. When compared to exercising in warm condition, there were no other difference in body composition other than the body fat.”

– W. J. O’hara, C. Allen, R. J. Shephard, and G. Allen. “Fat loss in the cold — a controlled study.” Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiratory, Environmental, and Exercise Physiology 45(5): 872-877 (1979).

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In 2007, the scientists found a lead in the fact that being exposed to cold environment may work as a solution in solving the obesity problem. They also pointed out that the study to find drugs which could mimic the cold thermogenesis effect has failed. “Adults have active brown adipose tissue, so they have the potential to fight against obesity. Most of the drugs which are created to stimulate brown adipose tissue and solve the obesity problem are currently eliminated from the possible candidate list.

– Jan Nedergaard et al., “Unexpected evidence for active brown adipose tissue in adult humans”, American Journal of Physiology and Endocrinology Metabolism vol 293 (2007)

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In a 2009 study, it is shown that being exposed to a slightly cold environment helps to lose weight. When the calorie is consumed due to cold environment, it does not stimulate hunger as a compensation. “According to the fat-modifying hypothesis”, weight shifts are always caused with the change of food consumption. Therefore, during the thermogenesis process, food consumption increased. This makes it impossible for thermogenesis to be the perfect countermeasure of obesity. However, under following circumstances, these rules do not apply. The increase of thermogenesis, allows food consumption rate to increase but it is not always fully compensated, so it could counter obesity.”

– Cannon & Nedergaard, “Thermogenesis challenges the adipostat hypothesis for body-weight control”, Proceedings of the Nutritional Society, vol 268 (2009).

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In 2012, Harvard scientists in Jocelin diabetes clinic, Boston, claimed as following. When comparing the consumption of the leftover calories, taking a safe amount of dosage of drugs which stimulates metabolism was less effective than being exposed to the cold. “Ephedrine intake, which stimulates broad sympathetic nervous system, is not enough to stimulate human’s brown adipose tissue movement. However, when exposed to a slightly cold environment, it is enough to stimulate brown adipose tissue to use more energy without any other body movement.”

– Aaron Cypess et al., “Cold but not sympathomimetics activates human brown adipose tissue in vivo”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vol 109 no 25 (2012).

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In 2013, scientists started to seriously consider that slight cold thermogenesis may be the cure for obesity. This method was not as inconvenient as it was thought before. Citing from Dutch scientists. “Lately, there has been discovered that human body is capable of storing active brown adipose tissue. How is the brown adipose tissue supplemented and activated may give clues to the current obesity problem. It is shown that during the 10 days of adapting to cold, the protocol has shown the activation of brown adipose tissue along with the increase of non-shivering thermogenesis. There were no changes in the existence and nonexistence or the activation of brown adipose tissue among genders, before and after getting used to the cold. The physical adaptation of cold is according to an objective change in thermoanesthesia and the test subjects felt comfortable in cold environments and felt that it was relatively warm. It was also seen that the shivering has decreased. By looking at these results synthetically, being continuously exposed to cold is a rational and economical way to increase the energy consumption level and contribute to the method of solving obesity.”

– Anouk van der Lans et al., “Cold acclimation recruits human brown fat and increases nonshivering thermogenesis”, Journal of Clinical Investigation vol 123 no 8 (2013)

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Japanese scientists found out that when exposed to cold thermogenesis for 2 hours per day for 6 weeks, there were significant decrease in body fat. It was also clearly shown that during this process the brown adipose tissue was not even needed. “The brown adipose tissue participates in combusting fat to produce heat when the body is exposed to the cold. When exposed to 19℃ of acute cold for 2 hours, the energy consumption level increases along with the thermogenesis rate caused by the cold. The rising rate of energy consumption due to cold is closely related to the activation of the brown adipose tissue. This is not related to age or lean body mass (subtraction of body fat from weight). When exposed to 17℃ of cold for 2 hours per day for 6 weeks, the activation rate of the brown adipose tissue and energy consumption rate increases while the body fat decreases. The change of brown adipose tissue activation rate and body fat is shown to be inversely proportional. These results show that even for people who’s brown adipose activation rate has decreased, the mass of the brown adipose cells could rise, leading to the loss of body fat.”

– Takeshi Yoneshiro et al., “Recruited brown adipose tissue as an antiobesity agent in humans”, Journal of Clinical Investigation vol 123 no 8 (2013).

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Lastly, the test subjects who participate in the cold thermogenesis study in 2014 has become very well known, along with the study itself and the press who reported on this subject within the scientific community. “Obesity is the result of excessive balance of energy. In order to solve this, one has to consume less food, increase physical activity or approach it from a pharmacological point of view. However, in most cases, people fail in maintaining their weight. Longer use of drugs has low utility rate, decrease in durability and also cause serious side effects, therefore be used restrictively. Considering the modern-day knowledge and technology, these drugs have their limitation so there must be diverse research for new ideas and effective technology in other areas. Being regularly exposed to moderate amount of cold thermogenesis will stimulate the increase of healthy and long-lasting use of energy, becoming a better alternative.

– Lichtenbelt et al., “Cold exposure – an approach to increasing energy expenditure in humans”, Cell Press: Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 25 no 4 (April 2014).