Question: What happens if brown fat doesn't help obese people burn calories?

Sonia Rodriguez answered on 9 Jul 2020: last edited 11 Jul 2020 8:36 am

Hi Naomi. The experiments done in mice and what we know from humans show that if we increase brown fat size or activity we can make our body burn more calories. At the moment, we are still learning how to safely activate brown fat and how to make brown fat in the lab to be transplanted. It is possible that even if we get to activate or transplant this brown fat efficiently in obese patients they will not burn enough extra calories.
As for any treatment or procedure we want to use in patients, there are many things to test before being approved: first in cells, then in animals and finally lots of tests in humans. All these tests are needed to prove the treatments are safe and effective. It can take several years to reach the final steps and only a very small percentage of the treatments succeed. Less than 1 in 10 of those promising treatments that pass the first tests in animals and get to be tested in humans are finally useful. Despite the numbers, this should not be discouraging. It means that science can give us treatments for many diseases and that it is worth it to keep trying even if we sometimes fail, because the more we try the higher the chances of finding the right treatment.
Obesity is a very complex disease and there are many researchers trying to find a cure focusing on different organs and strategies to maximise the options of finding the best treatment. Even if the brown fat strategy fails, we will learn a lot of important things about obesity and how our body works in the process that might also be important.