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Many adults have unexpectedly large deposits of a calorie-burning type of "brown fat" scientists once thought exist only in infants. Until recently, it was believed that brown fat, the calorie-burning "good" fat, exists in infants to keep their body temperature but disappears after infancy. Brown fat cells are loaded with mitochondria that contains large quantity of maroon-colored iron, which explains why it is called brown fat.
Dr. Ronald Kahn of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston examined PET and CT scans of 1,972 patients and found that active brown fat was visible in 7.5 percent of the women and 3 percent of the men. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
As PET and CT scans are capable of detecting only the brown fat deposits above a certain size, there are probably many more people with smaller amounts of brown fat, he added.
The study also shows that slim people have more brown fat than fat people, younger people more than older people, and women more than men. The team says finding ways to produce and easily activate more brown fat will help the fight against obesity.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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