Scientists: math help to lose weight

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Ученые: занятия математикой помогают похудеть

The mild stress caused by waiting for results of exam in mathematics, raises cortisol levels and stimulates brown fat to produce heat, ridding the body of excess inches and pounds.. Findings that may have implications for the treatment of obesity, published in the latest issue of the publication “the Journal of experimental physiology”(Journal of Experimental Physiology.

Until recently it was thought that only babies and hibernating mammals have brown adipose tissue (BAT) or brown fat. But in 2009, it in small amounts was also found in adults. Now we know that most adults have a 50-100 g of brown fat, mainly stored in the neck or supraclavicular region.

While the reserves of white fat are associated with excess calories, brown fat burns energy and generates heat 300 times more heat than other body tissues. This suggests that it plays a critical role in human metabolism.

People with lower body mass index (BMI), typically have more brown fat, but whether this is a direct consequence remains uncertain. However, this unique ability of brown fat to generate heat and absorb the glucose, already awakened interest of scientists, who for a long time and, admittedly, by and large unsuccessfully, looking for ways to combat obesity.

Professor Michael E. Symonds from Nottingham University in the UK, and a group of his colleagues, studied the relationship between stress and activity of brown fat.

Acute stress activates the “furnace” brown fat

During the experiments, caused a mild psychological stress in five healthy women, causing them to take a short math test. After passing the test,the women watched a relaxing video.

Scientists measured the stress response by analyzing the cortisol level in saliva. They measured the activity of brown fat using infrared thermography, which allowed them to detect changes in the temperature of the skin covering the area where the accumulated brown fat.

The math test did not cause acute stress, but waiting for assessments has caused a certain excitement that was evident by increased levels of cortisol and temperature of brown fat. Increased levels of cortisol associated with extra fat activity, implying a greater capacity to produce heat.

The findings suggest that individual differences in the amount of brown fat can be related to differences in response to psychological stress.

Professor Symonds calls for a better understanding of what controls the activity of brown fat, particularly diet and physical activity, in order to develop sustainable practices that can help prevent obesity and diabetes .

As for the relationship between obesity and stress, Professor Symonds notes that while the severe and chronic stress may contribute to the deterioration of the metabolism, artificial mild stress can be useful for people who need to control obesity, if you use this method together with other interventions.

“It is obvious that some types of stress cannot be avoided, but the answer may be useful from the point of view of the regulation of body weight. For example, being exposed to stress from cold, which may involve the burning of brown fat.”, says Professor Symonds.

By the way, earlier it was reported about the study that showed that the activity of brown fat can be stimulated by cold. The researchers found that decreasing the temperature from C to 19º 24º C caused an increase in activity of brown fat activity 30-40%

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