Cold Exposure as A Natural Tool to Treat Obesity in Humans

Abstract

Treating obesity has become very challenging despite behavioral, pharmacological and surgical approaches are being available. In recent years, especially after confirming the presence of functionally active brown fat cells in the adult humans, exposing obese individuals to cold environment has attracted a lot of attention to treat obesity using it as a simple and physiological means. Brown fat with two major roles in energy regulation and thermoregulation is a unique tissue present in almost all mammalian species. It is distributed diffusely in the body as small depots. It works on the principle of activation of brown fat during such cold exposure via the sympathetic nerves mediated by beta-3 adrenergic receptors in those cells. Such activation results in regulatory heat production in the brown fat by burning the energy substrates as heat rather than generating energy and storing it as fat. With the current advancement in the knowledge of adipose tissue in general and brown fat in particular, the aim of this article is to provide a clear insight into various aspects of brown fat function control that could be used as a simple treatment of obesity.