Social activity promotes weight loss

Social activity promotes the transfer of fat reserves to brown adipose tissue, in which excess fat is quickly and timely burned.

Fatty tissue in our body is of two kinds - white fat and brown fat. The share of white adipose tissue accounts for the greater part; her cells can be compared to a drop of fat, covered with a thin layer of cytoplasm. Obesity and overweight are associated with the increase in the content of white adipose tissue.

About brown oil for a long time knew only that it is exclusively for newborns. Its cells contain an increased number of mitochondria, which causes the brown fatty tissue to acquire a characteristic color. In mitochondria of brown fat, intense burning of lipids occurs with the release of heat, and the main function of brown adipose tissue has long been considered to adapt the organism of the newborn to the new environmental conditions. But not so long ago there was convincing evidence that brown fat is also found in adults. In particular, its share in the human body rises in a cold climate.

Obviously, if you learn how to shift the proportion between two types of adipose tissue in favor of brown, this will solve the problem of obesity. For this, as it turned out, does not need to move to the Arctic latitudes: it is enough to activate your own social life.

Researchers from the University of Ohio (USA) conducted the following experiment: some mice lived alone, while other rodents held 15-20 individuals in one "communal", equipped with labyrinths, burrows, tunnels, wooden toys, etc. Although both fed the same way, they quickly showed differences in body weight. It turned out that the percentage of brown adipocytes in adipose tissue increased significantly in mice that lived in the collective. But, as the authors of the work emphasize, the living conditions of the groups differed not so much in the possibility of physical exertion as in the level of sociality. The collective house for 15-20 persons was designed in such a way that the mice constantly collided and communicated with each other. It is the live communication "face to face", according to scientists in the journal Cell Metabolism, was the reason that fat in the body was pumped into brown fatty tissue and effectively burned.

The fatty mice lost up to half of their excess weight after being transferred to a socially active environment. Moreover, in such conditions, even a fat diet was powerless: the intensely communicated rodents were extremely reluctant to gain excess weight. The increased body temperature of the animals said that brown fat burns excess lipids quickly and in a timely manner.

Researchers managed to establish that the increase in the proportion of brown fat tissue is triggered by the neurotrophic factor of the brain (BDNF). The content of this protein in the brain increases with social stimulation, one of its functions is to stimulate the growth of nerve cells. Most likely, the same connection between the neurotrophic factor of the brain and brown fat is in humans. If so, then this opens up a new, non-invasive and generally non-medicament way of treating obesity.

According to the researchers, the maintenance of extensive social contacts and "live communication" create favorable stress for the body, which works both to improve brain function and to remove excess fat from the body. But the effect will depend not on the number of "friends", but on the depth and thoroughness of each social contact. Purely formal communication with at least a hundred acquaintances in the literal sense will not benefit either the mind or the heart. Not a very happy reservation for those who hoped to get rid of excess weight by using a friend list in a thousand "friends" on the Facebook network ...

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]