The data of the they are alarming. And Spain is one of the countries with the highest percentage of people who are overweight or obese.
61.6% of Spaniards have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 25, which is classified as overweightand 23.8% over 30, which falls within the parameters of obesity.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.8 million people die each year in the world due to obesity or being overweight.
And it is that, beyond the consequences of obesity itself or being overweight, it is an important risk factor of non-communicable diseases such as:
Brown or brown adipose tissue
He treatment The initial stage of obesity involves making changes in the eating pattern and the increase in physical exercise.
But nowadays there are even specific medicines for this disease. Because, as the experts point out, The obesity is an illness.
This is the case, for example, of , a drug that is injected once a week and that increases the feeling of satiety while regulating body fat.
It is a treatment to “gain health” that also lowers blood pressure, prevents diabetes and helps control cholesterol.
On Obesity Daywhich are jointly held at (SEEDO) and (SEEN), have revealed one of the most “promising” lines of research in the field of obesity.
And it is brown or brown adipose tissue. As he explains professor Francesc Villarroyafrom the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Barcelona, is “a place in the body where calories from the diet are burned”.
“It activates with low temperatures”
It has always been thought that brown adipose tissue only had the function of producing heat and maintain body temperature when the degrees drop, since brown fat is activated by the cold.
But now there is good news:
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It is known that adipose tissue is also a protection system to “burn” excess food that we ingest with the diet and avoid that they are deposited in excess in the form of white fat and that cause obesity.
For this reason, “there is no doubt that activating brown fat would prevent weight gain, and would even allow a person with obesity to reduce the weight.”
Until today, attempts have been made to activate brown fat through drugs, but all attempts have generated side effects therefore, the professor points out, “overcoming this current limitation is an active line of research in this field.”
Advantages of brown fat
As the doctor points out, a recent study carried out with 150,000 patients in the United States confirms the healthy effects of brown fat.
This research has shown that, in addition to protecting against obesity, people with active brown fat show protection against diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (from heart attack to ).
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“Brown adipose tissue is believed to release hormonal factors into the blood, which have a salutary action on the cardiovascular system.”
“Identifying what these hormonal factors are and how they act is a promising line of work, since they could be used in the future as treatment and prevention tools for serious and very frequent diseases in patients with obesity.”
How to activate brown adipose tissue and lose weight?
Although we are not talking about “miraculous” recipes, there are very effective formulas, with daily practices, that can help activate brown adipose tissue:
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He physical exercise, who has demonstrated his . It increases energy expenditure by itself, improves metabolic and immune status, and promotes the activation of brown fat.
To maintain a good state of health, the WHO recommends doing at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity, which is about 25 minutes a day.
In addition to the benefits mentioned, it also reduces muscle and back pain, strengthens bones and joints, preserves cardiovascular health, and maintains sleep quality.
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The high temperatures are the enemy of the “fat burns fat”. Thus, the professor recommends increasing outdoor activity and moderating indoor environmental temperatures, and more now with the use of the .
“High heat and lack of outdoor activity are increasingly viewed as part of the obesogenic environment of our society.”
“Without research you can not advance”
Coinciding with the world obesity daythe Spanish Society of Obesity (SEEDO) and the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN) have claimed the vital importance of research to fight “against the epidemic of the 21st century”, which is estimated to affect 39% of Spanish children between the ages of 7 and 9.
The Professor Gema Medina-Gómezfrom the SEEDO Translational Obesity Research Working Group, points out that:
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“Research is the key to achieving a world without obesity”
Because the study has an important role in the “knowledge of obesity as a disease, for:
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Being able to reach an early diagnosis
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To avoid other diseases associated with obesity
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To develop future treatments”.
Also matches the Dr. Irene Bretonpresident of…