Parents, when questioned about their hopes for their children
commonly respond with two main words – ‘Happiness’ and ‘Success’. Now
both of these are of course dependent upon an individual’s perception of
what makes one happy or successful, but one key factor underlies both
of these – the health and optimal functioning of the brain. To
understand how to support the health and optimal functioning of the
amazing Human brain, we need to take a very terse look at how our
massive brain power originally developed.
The divergence of Humankind from our great ape cousins is thought to
have occurred about 5-7 million years ago. I sketched out the
evolutionary timeframe in a previous article.(1) The two main outcomes
of this evolution was our gradual adaptation towards true bi-pedalism
(we are the only species capable of being able to truly do this – other
species can only do so for short periods and are decidedly awkward in
the position), and the conversion from a dominantly plant eating species
to an omnivore (the consumption of both plant and animal foods) – both
of which occurred as a result of the disappearance of the forests in
Africa to a savannah landscape.
These two adaptations had a huge influence on our brain structure –
the bi-pedalism freed our hands so that we could begin using tools, and
the adoption of a more carnivorous diet provided a much more nutrient
and energy dense food which is required for brain power. Despite our
current habits of eating the muscular tissue of animals, our ancestors
prized the internal organs (heart, liver, kidneys, intestines etc) and
especially the brains of their prey. The organs are the most nutrient
dense tissues in the body, with the brain being packed with high
concentrations of long-chain omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.(2)
These factors combined began to make our brains ever so slightly
different from our primate cousins and the land based mammals. During
mammalian evolution all mammals including primates lost brain size –
except Humans.(3) It is likely that the energy and the supply of long
chained fatty acids prevented our ancestors from succumbing to this
widespread brain drain. However, it doesn’t explain the massive leap in
brain power that occurred in our ancestors 150,000-200,000 years ago.
That particular development requires a large supply of a particular
fatty acid called Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA).
Modern Human brains are in excess of 60% lipid, almost exclusively
DHA.(4) DHA is essential for neurons and other specialised cells in the
body. We can make DHA from the essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid
which is found in plant foods, but the conversion is so low that it’s
insufficient to generate adequate amounts of DHA to promote the massive
encephalisation (Brain growth) that allowed Humans to develop the unique
brain power that we have inherited today. The consumption of brains and
other sources of long chained fatty acids would’ve definitely helped,
but to develop brains to this extent needs a much larger and more
consistent supply – that supply can only come from one place – the sea.
It is likely that our ancestors migrated to the southern coast of
Africa and began to scavenge both algae (a single-celled organism that
synthesises fatty acids, particularly Arachidonic Acid, Eicosapentaenoic
Acid, and Docosahexaenoic Acid) and more importantly shellfish.
Although algae contain a high percentage of fatty acids, the total
amount is relatively low, so requires large amounts to be consumed.(5)
However, algae is the main food source of plankton (zooplankton), which
concentrates the algae derived fatty acids into its own tissues, making
plankton a superior source of nutrition to algae – if you can see them.
Plankton is so tiny as to be invisible to Humans – but to shellfish,
plankton is a gourmet meal. Just as the plankton concentrated the fatty
acids into its structure by consuming algae, the same process occurs in
the shellfish, which are easily seen and were readily available to our
ancestors, who at this point had acquired the ability to use tools which
helped to access the shellfish inside their protective shells, on the
southern and eastern coasts (and rivers) of Africa.
With this newly discovered source of nutrition for their brains, our
ancestors already slightly different brain structure began to expand
rapidly especially the pre-frontal cortex which enables us to make
complex plans, decide upon actions, and moderate our social behaviour.
Just the kind of skills you would need to obtain an even more
concentrated source of these powerful fatty acids – the source being
fish, and the skill being fishing.
With the development of fishing, our brains were being supplied with
large amounts of fatty acids and in particular DHA. It was this
nutritional environment that enabled the huge leap in brain power that
allowed us to develop all of the culture that you see around you today
and in our distant past.
So with DHA being so vital in our evolution, you’d expect our brains today to reflect this need. Let’s take a look.
Childhood is a time of rapid brain maturation, connectivity, and
expansion, all of which are associated with brain DHA accumulation.
Infancy especially is also the key period for visual development which
is also thought to be dependent upon DHA. Deficiency in DHA at this time
has been shown to result in poorer visual acuity in follow up tests 4
years later.(6)
There is also indication that supplementation with long chain
polyunsaturated fatty acids improved performance in problem solving at 9
months of age, which is correlated with later IQ and vocabulary.(7)
Low blood concentrations of Omega 3 have been correlated in children
with ADHD and related behaviour or learning difficulties – and shown to
improve upon re-dressing the deficiency status.(8)
A recent study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation
for 16 weeks with DHA or placebo in healthy school children mainly aged
7–9 years who were initially underperforming in reading. As well as
looking at reading, the study sought to investigate the effects, if any,
on working memory and ADHD-like behaviour.(9)
Depending on the initial reading ability DHA had a variable effect on
improving performance with the most significant benefit for those who
began the study with the lowest scores. The children with the lowest
initial reading score demonstrated a gain up to 50% higher than is
generally expected for that time period.
Again like the reading measure, working memory showed an improvement,
although not statistically significant, with increased DHA intake
especially in the individuals with the highest under-performance
initially.
Parents of the children in the study reported significant reduction
in behavioural symptoms. These included hyperactivity and oppositional
behaviour, mood swings and restless-impulsive behaviour as well as total
ADHD-type symptoms (these children were not diagnosed ADHD). Teachers
of the children with the lowest blood levels of omega 3 also noted
increased anxiety.
This is only a tiny fraction of the research on DHA (and an even
tinier fraction on fatty acids in general), however I hope it’s
sufficiently compelling to at least consider investigating the intake of
marine based omega 3 in your children. From the current evidence
intakes of about 1000mg of combined DHA and EPA appear to be sufficient
for health and performance in individuals without any identifiable
condition. In those who do have certain neuro-developmental conditions,
it’s likely that a higher intake is necessary to create a more optimal
environment.
The best source of omega 3 is from sea-food, however the study above
presented data that indicated that almost 90% consumed fish less than
twice per week, and almost 10% didn’t consume fish at all.(10) Two to
three meals of fatty fish per week would provide sufficient omega 3 for
most individuals, however, for those individuals that do not get this
amount the only reasonable avenue to obtain these fatty acids is via a
supplement. Here’s a supplement I use with younger members of my family:
Kids DHA
References:
1- http://wel-paleo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/evolutionary-fitness.html
2 – Cordain L, Watkins BA, Florant GL, Kelher M, Rogers L, Li Y.
Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: evolutionary implications
for reducing diet-related chronic disease. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002
Mar;56(3):181-91. Review. PubMed PMID: 11960292.
3 – Crawford MA, Bloom M, Broadhurst CL, Schmidt WF, Cunnane SC,
Galli C, Gehbremeskel K, Linseisen F, Lloyd-Smith J, Parkington J.
Evidence for the unique function of docosahexaenoic acid during the
evolution of the modern hominid brain. Lipids. 1999;34 Suppl:S39-47.
Review. PubMed PMID: 10419087.
4- Crawford MA. The role of dietary fatty acids in biology: their
place in the evolution of the human brain. Nutr Rev. 1992 Apr;50(4 ( Pt
2)):3-11. Review. PubMed PMID: 1608562.
5- Lang I, Hodac L, Friedl T, Feussner I. Fatty acid profiles and
their distribution patterns in microalgae: a comprehensive analysis of
more than 2000 strains from the SAG culture collection. BMC Plant Biol.
2011 Sep 6;11:124. doi: 10.1186/1471-2229-11-124. PubMed PMID:
21896160; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3175173.
6- Birch EE, Garfield S, Castañeda Y, Hughbanks-Wheaton D, Uauy R,
Hoffman D. Visual acuity and cognitive outcomes at 4 years of age in a
double-blind, randomized trial of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty
acid-supplemented infant formula. Early Hum Dev. 2007 May;83(5):279-84.
Epub 2007 Jan 18. PubMed PMID: 17240089.
7- Three Randomized Controlled Trials of Early Long-Chain
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation on Means-End Problem Solving
in Nine-Month Olds James R. Drover, Dennis R. Hoffman, Yolanda S.
Castañeda, Sarah E. Morale, Eileen E. Birch Child Dev. Author
manuscript; available in PMC 2010 September 1.Published in final edited
form as: Child Dev. 2009 Sep-Oct; 80(5): 1376–1384. doi:
10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01339.x PMCID: PMC2757317
8- Bloch MH, Qawasmi A. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation for the
treatment of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
symptomatology: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Acad Child
Adolesc Psychiatry. 2011 Oct;50(10):991-1000. doi:
10.1016/j.jaac.2011.06.008. Epub 2011 Aug 12. Review. PubMed PMID:
21961774; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3625948.
9- Richardson AJ, Burton JR, Sewell RP, Spreckelsen TF, Montgomery P.
Docosahexaenoic acid for reading, cognition and behavior in children
aged 7-9 years: a randomized, controlled trial (the DOLAB Study). PLoS
One. 2012;7(9):e43909. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043909. Epub 2012 Sep
6. PubMed
PMID: 22970149; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3435388.
10- Montgomery P, Burton JR, Sewell RP, Spreckelsen TF, Richardson
AJ. Low blood long chain omega-3 fatty acids in UK children are
associated with poor cognitive performance and behavior: a
cross-sectional analysis from the DOLAB study. PLoS One. 2013 Jun
24;8(6):e66697. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066697. Print 2013. PubMed
PMID: 23826114; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3691187.
Sunday, 30 March 2014
Is your mind hanging in the balance?
Unless you’ve been living with your head under a rock for the previous few years, you will have noticed the increasing international focus upon dementia, and with good reason. The phrase ‘neurological time-bomb’ used by the Neurological Alliance in 2012 was not a throw away comment, it really is potentially a massive crisis that we are currently under-prepared to deal with. One of the main reasons is that like many disease states it is gradual and almost imperceptible until it’s too late. The lack of saliency, especially in younger folk, is a major barrier in making any inroads into being able to disarm this time-bomb. So let’s make it salient.
I’m not going to go into detail about what is occurring in the brain, nor the areas and functions that this test is associated with (we can examine this at a later stage), I just want to get you thinking about your current condition. It’ll only take 30 seconds, and you are doing this at your own risk, I’m not responsible for any injuries that may occur.
Make sure you’re in a safe environment not too close to any hazards. Once you’ve read the instructions and understand the test, give it a go.
Take off your shoes and stand as shown in the accompanying picture with your palms facing up. Once you feel stable, close your eyes. Without moving the support foot (the one you’re standing on), time how long you can hold your balance with your eyes completely closed. If you have to open your eyes, hop, drop the unsupported knee from its position, move the foot from the spot, or over balance, that is the time you record.
If you scored 28 seconds or above that is super-optimal, with 20-28 seconds being optimal. 14-20 seconds is sub-optimal, with 8-14 seconds being average (do not read ‘good’). Below 8 seconds is poor.
How did you score? Optimal, average, or poor? If average or poor, and especially if you’re young, maybe it’s time to start asking yourself some questions.
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
A Life Less Ordinary
Periodic cramping, bloating, constipation, and diarrhoea. There was also the unfocussed anxiety, irritability and depression - which got worse with menstruation, but was there most of the time.
These symptoms are not pleasant and make life uncomfortable in many ways - but when you add in the onset of rheumatoid arthritis which was beginning in the thumb and finger joints, the development of alopecia areata, on top of a pre-existing vitiligo condition – then far from life being one of joy and excitement, becomes one of constant pain, worry and misery - especially when you’re a 20-something year old young lady.
After countless hours and consultations with private healthcare specialists where your prognosis is regular symptomatic treatment with steroid injections to quieten the unavoidable flare-ups of pigment loss in fairly expansive patches of skin, hair loss and debilitating pain that will progressively become more frequent and aggressive as you age, then your future becomes a bleak and dark place to envisage.
When you add to this a diagnosis of endometriosis, then that dark place becomes an abyss, especially when the consultant who you hope will throw you a lifeline shrugs it off as being ‘normal’ and offers a contraceptive pill to alleviate the symptoms as a conciliatory measure. Normal? ‘normal’ is not always what it seems, especially when that norm data is derived from the average of a less than healthy population.
None of the Doctors, consultants or specialists even mentioned nutrition and when questioned they responded that it wasn’t really a factor.
“It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.”
~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
I think we had almost reached this ‘lost everything’ stage, so maybe it was time to try anything – well something; anything is a wee bit ambiguous.
The vitiligo, alopecia and rheumatism are all auto-immune related conditions which have a massive genetic component to them. But genetics do not equal destiny. Just because you have a specific gene doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be expressed; this is where epigenetics (gene-environment interaction) is so important. There’s nothing we could do to alter her genetics, but we do have a large control over the environmental conditions.
Because there was an obvious gut component to the situation, we arranged her food to remove any potential triggers for inflammation and provide specific nutrients that are known anti-inflammatory agents, knowing that doing so we are also beneficially modulating the HPA axis and pancreatic function which then has further implications down the cascade. In addition to this we also created an environment that assisted the repairing of the gut and other tissues in the body.
Within a fortnight the rheumatism had completely quietened down. Within a month the bloating, constipation and obtrusive diarrhoea* had disappeared. The anxiety, irritability and depression had also diminished. There have been no further flare ups of vitiligo and hopefully the alopecia is now in remission (it’s difficult to gauge as you have to wait for the hair follicle to cycle which can take at least a few months), but it’s looking good so far – no further patches occurring and the previous areas are now growing new hair.
As well as assisting in reducing the unpleasant symptoms, there was also a nice, but not unsurprising effect. Take a look at the accompanying photos and you may just be able to see to what I’m referring.
Well done Nazaneen. You’ve had to be very strong for so long – now, with this gremlin under control let’s begin to make your life a stunning masterpiece.
*Foods that previously would’ve required an almost instant visit to the bathroom have since been re-introduced and now seem to be tolerated perfectly fine
Virus Causes Over-eating
Weight stigma, weight bias, weight-ism and weight-based discrimination are all terms used to identify the act of characterising someone based upon their weight (usually at the extremes of under- or -over). In our culture under-weight people are often perceived as harsh, controlling and cold, whereas over-weight people are perceived as indolent, inconsistent and permissive. These stereo-typical memes (essentially a virus of the mind) permeate through our society to such an extent that they have been shown to have a large effect on how we socially and economically interact. For instance it has been shown that being overweight, regardless of ability, has a negative consequence on success at job interviews, promotions, pay raises and many other aspects in careers.
Our culture shapes our reality much more than is appreciated. Culture is the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society. It’s an information construct. The information you receive becomes your reality.
Your most sacred, intimate beliefs, including your belief in a creator(s) was taught to you by someone else. Had you been born into a different culture, you would now hold different beliefs and worship different god(s). But, you would feel just as certain about those beliefs as the beliefs you hold now. In both cases the source of many of these beliefs are a long forgotten mystery, yet they are still as potent, if not more so, than at their inception. The ambiguous residual traces of memes often cause more damage than the original because the uncertainty that builds in over time allows for biased interpretation. Thus it is prudent to be discerning to whom we give our minds.
The media makes great use of this cultural influence to shape our thoughts and views on the world. The newspapers, television and internet, all forms of virtual reality, constantly bombard us with images, icons and other material that changes our perception of reality. If we use this unexamined content as the basis of our learning, then we simply become a manipulated pawn in a game we don’t even know we are playing.
Overweight, whether as a cause or a consequence of disease, is a health concern. However the current trend of fat-shaming is not only vile, but it doesn’t help overweight individuals rectify the situation (which I’m assuming is the purpose of fat-shaming - it couldn’t just be venom projected from un-enlightened, insecure, unsophisticated minds, could it?).
A recent study has supported the hypothesis that the hyper-phagia* (over-eating) often seen in overweight individuals is not only a result of brain circuits damaged by specific foodstuffs (especially hyper-palatable foods processed to contain the magic combination of salt, sugar and fat), but also that the ability to control the evolutionary urges to consume these foods is diminished due to this culturally generated perception of image.
The study looked at how a weight-stigmatising environment affected an individual’s ability to control themselves in regards to food. Women were randomly assigned to read a news article about stigma faced by overweight individuals in the job market or a control article. Exposure to weight-stigmatising news articles caused self-perceived overweight women, but not women who did not perceive themselves as overweight, to consume more calories and feel less capable of controlling their eating than exposure to non-stigmatising articles. Weight-stigmatising articles also increased concerns about being a target of stigma among both self-perceived overweight and non-overweight women.
The self-perception of individuals who perceive themselves as overweight alters the way the brain functions. When individuals who perceive themselves as overweight are exposed to an environment where they are made to feel shame, guilt and other negative emotions, the body initiates a stress response. The stress response is a very ancient and powerful set of processes, mediated mostly by the R-complex (our reptilian brain) and limbic system (paleo-mammalian brain) that served us well in our evolutionary past to handle dangerous situations and drive us to seek out food. The problem is when activated these areas over-ride our higher brain functions.
The higher brain functions are mediated by the neo-mammalian brain. Among these higher functions is the ability to regulate and control behaviour by using reasoning, problem solving and planning. For instance, if we were presented with a chocolate cake, but know that it was at odds with our current goals, using the executive functions would allow us to regulate ourselves by reasoning that ‘If I eat this cake now, it won’t help me reach my goal, so I shall politely decline’. However if the brain is in a highly stressed state, this process does not occur or is at least severely inhibited, and thus the regulatory brakes are taken off and the action of devouring the cake is literally a no-brainer.
A key finding of this study was that the actual body-size of the individual wasn’t as impactful as was the perception of body-size, which ties directly into our observation of how the contemporary bed-fellows of media and industry manufacture an ever more encompassing environment where we are subjected to powerful influences on our perceptions which in-turn influence our behavioural autonomy.
If I were of a more cynical mind, I would suggest that the roots of this culture of fat-shaming and fit-spiration may have more to do with contrived market forces to get you to consume, consume, consume, than an honest attempt at promoting health.
*The same neural stimulation in the hypothalamic-limbic-pituit
Reference:
Brenda Major, Jeffrey M. Hunger, Debra Bunyan, Carol T. Miller, The Ironic Effects of Weight Stigma, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Available online 1 December 2013, ISSN 0022-1031, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
Positive Lifestyle Changes Associated with Longer Telomeres
The Lancet (Oncology) journal described a study whose results revealed that improvements in diet, exercise, stress management, and social support are associated with longer telomeres* (DNA-protein complexes at the end of chromosomes which shorten with cellular aging).
The current study included 35 men with low-risk prostate cancer who had elected to undergo active surveillance. Ten men participated in the lifestyle intervention and 25 served as controls. Blood samples collected from the subjects at the beginning of the study and after five years were analyzed for peripheral-blood mononuclear cell telomere length and telomerase levels.
The lifestyle program consisted of a whole food diet, moderate exercise, stress management (yoga, meditation and relaxation), and weekly support group sessions.
Men who engaged in the lifestyle program had telomeres that were 10% longer on average at the end of the study, while the control group experienced an average 3% decrease in length. Greater adherence to lifestyle recommendations were found to be associated with a corresponding increase in telomere length.
Reference:
The Lancet Oncology - 1 October 2013 ( Vol. 14, Issue 11, Pages 1112-1120 )
DOI: 10.1016/
* http://
Breathe
Stress is now being shown by science to be linked to the initiation and rapid degeneration of many of the major diseases plaguing humanity today from cardiovascular diseases, many cancers and certain dementias. However as I’ve shown in previous articles* it’s not really the ‘stress’ that gets you, rather it’s your response (and more usually ‘reaction’, there’s a difference) to the stressor.
To help you begin to remove yourself from the primitive immediate r-complex reaction to stress that many of us display (much like our non-human animal cousins), we can use mindfulness to develop a quiet mind. Far from just minimising damage from stress reactivity, the new research coming out surrounding mindfulness is demonstrating that it allows us to begin to tap into the miraculous power of our genome, from abilities such as enhanced creativity and vastly increased brain speed and power, to physical performances that we currently only catch glimpses of from our species absolute elite. You, your friends and your family all have this potential, practicing a quiet mind is an essential component to being able to harness it.
Here’s a great group of methods that the amazing people at the University of California San Francisco assembled (annotations are mine) to help you to begin developing a quiet mind; all they ask you to do is regularly BREATHE:
(B)reathe - Take deep breaths and be present in the moment. To help you remain in the present simply focus on your breathing, notice how it feels, not only the breath but also how it affects your entire body and mind.
(R)ealistic goals – One of the oddities of the Human psyche is our over-confidence – ever notice how we are all the greatest driver in the world? The same is true when dealing with, especially short-term, goals, we are often overly confident in our ability to achieve them. There’s a truism that goes ‘we overestimate how much we can do in a day, but we greatly underestimate how much we can do in a year’. Set realistic goals, make a plan and then achieve them. Success is a habit - create success, often.
(E)veryday events – ‘Just my luck, it always happens to me’. Always? I’m willing to bet (of the Gentlemen’s kind) that whatever bad things have happened this year, you’ve probably had at least 100 times as many days where it didn’t. Why don’t we celebrate the fact that today, is actually a good day, for so many reasons?
(A)cts of kindness – The greatest gift is in the giving. In our increasingly consumerist world we often feel that gifts have to be a purchasable item. Yet with all of this ‘stuff’, people are less content than ever. So I’m not sure the solution to happiness will be found in more ‘stuff’. There are other things that we can give to each other though – time, compliments, friendship…I’m sure you can think of many others. We don’t elevate ourselves by pushing people down around us relative to where we are; that only keeps us at the same level. Lift people up around you and you’ll naturally be buoyed up by your surroundings.
(T)urn negative events around – Even in our darkest hours, if we look at it from the right perspective we can always find a positive or useful outcome. Learn to become a seeker of these silver linings, that’s where the growth is.
(H)umour – Humour is Natures stress reliever. See the silliness in it all, especially our artificially created social constructs. Be self-depreciating without taking it to heart. As the saying goes, ‘Don’t take life too seriously, nobody gets out alive anyway’.
(E)nd each day with gratitude – As a culture we often end our days reflecting upon the events that transpired and more often than not dwell upon what went wrong. Using the same thought-pattern as in the ‘everyday events’, focus specifically on what you are grateful for on this day. A little phrase that might help you in this process ‘Appreciation over expectation’.
* http://
Less 'brown fat' Linked to Diabetes and Obesity
The findings of a study published today (12th November 2013) indicate that the lower level of brown adipose tissue (BAT, or 'brown fat') found in south Asians—who make up a fifth of the world's population— could help explain why they have an exceptionally high susceptibility to developing metabolic problems such as obesity and type II diabetes.
BAT has been shown to have beneficial effects on glucose tolerance, lipid metabolism, and body weight in pre-clinical studies. Unlike white fat cells, which in-part store the body's surplus energy as fat, brown fat cells in BAT can convert some of this energy into large amounts of heat, thus dissipating the energy surplus rather than storing it. Estimates suggest that fully activated BAT can contribute up to 20% of total energy expenditure; for the average female in the UK that would be equivalent to approximately 300 Kcal worth of fat per day. To put this in perspective this is the same amount of fat that would be used during a higher intensity aerobic class lasting 90-120 minutes (1 ½ - 2 hours).
Previous studies have shown that BAT activity is reduced in obese adults, thereby limiting this route of energy expenditure.
In this study, researchers from the Netherlands compared resting energy expenditure and BAT volume and activity in 12 healthy lean south Asian men (aged about 25 years) and 12 matched white Caucasian men after exposure to cold using PET and CT scans – all subjects were Dutch nationals. The effect of cold exposure on non-shivering thermogenesis and plasma lipid levels was also measured.
The results demonstrated a noticeable difference in resting energy expenditure (REE). The REE was markedly lower (-32%) in south Asian participants than in Caucasians, as was the volume of metabolically active BAT (-34%).
The researchers concluded that the lower resting energy expenditure, non-shivering thermogenesis, and BAT volumes in south Asian populations might underlie their high susceptibility to metabolic disturbances, such as obesity and type II diabetes. The researchers further suggested that development of strategies to increase BAT volume and activity might help prevent and treat these disorders.
In the HPC-UK Lean for Life program, increasing the amount and activity of BAT is one of our primary aims. It requires a few steps to create the specific environment to stimulate BAT production and activity, but once it’s set up, it is very easy to maintain a low body-fat body with very little effort and remain that way for life without the deprivation or unnecessary amounts of exercise called for by more common approaches.
www.hpc-uk.net
Reference:
Leontine E H Bakker MD et al. Brown adipose tissue volume in healthy lean south Asian adults compared with white Caucasians: a prospective, case-controlled observational study. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology - 12 November 2013 DOI: 10.1016/
Artwork by marcbourcier.deviantart.co
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