Fat vs. Fat: Brown Fat Revelations / Health

Scientists have found a new way to rev the body’s metabolism: Activate its fat cells. Ultimately, what they envision is a “brown fat pill”—a drug that boosts brown fat activity through molecular means. Here’s the science behind what may be the weight-loss breakthrough of the next decade.

Five years ago this February, Aaron Cypess had an epiphany4 about fat. A fellow in endocrinology at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Cypess happened to be attending a lecture in which a doctor presented images of human PET scans. At one point, Cypess recalls, the doctor indicated an area corresponding to the neck and said, rather dismissively, “Oh, that’s brown fat.” Cypess was taken aback. After the lecture, he approached the doctor and told him he must have been mistaken: Everyone knows there’s no brown fat in human adults. The doctor responded, “Yeah, there is. We see it all the time.” Cypess paused. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Really?”

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