Those who find themselves dreading the approach of another brisk Ohio autumn may have something to be grateful for.
A team of researchers from Ohio University will collaborate with a team from Southern Illinois University to study the effect of cold temperatures on weight, lifespan and overall human health. The study will take place over the next two years.
“We’ve had several other grants with SIU and Dr. Bartke (one of SIU’s professors who is leading the study),” Edward List, one of the key researchers from OU involved in the study, said. “There was very good collaboration. They were very productive.”
The long-term goal of the study is to address the question of whether forcing the body to work harder to thermoregulate, or maintain its core internal temperature, has benefits for human health.
“The hypothesis for this study is that thermoregulation is a key factor in lifespan,” Dr. Darlene Berryman, one of the key researchers from OU involved in the study, said.
In the pilot study, dwarf mice were exposed to cold temperatures — not freezing — but slightly lower than what they were used to. The effect of the cold temperatures on the mice was twofold: their bodies had to work to thermoregulate, and their concentration of brown fat increased.
Berryman, executive director of the Diabetes Institute, said OU’s mouse model is one of the longest-lived on record.
“Smaller size is what makes them more sensitive to the cold temperature,” List said. “Sensitivity to cold is actually a good thing. It lets them burn more fat and establish a healthy physiology. If that’s the case, if we take normal-sized mice in a further decreased temperature, they should live longer, too.”
According to Berryman, there is a newly recognized appreciation for a type of adipose tissue called brown fat, which has special properties that help humans burn energy rather than store it. That type of fat, in theory, could cause weight loss.
“It’s kind of a beautiful thing,” Berryman said. She said, laughing, it is a "dream of (hers)" to write a book called "Lose Weight: Thermoregulate."
Athens residents, as well as those from other cities that experience crisp falls and brutal winters, may be pleased with that information.
“It makes you wonder if we’re better off walking around outside in the snow,” Vlad Mirea, a freshman studying computer science at the University of Akron, said.
The bottom line is whether it would be worth it for humans to live in temperatures below the threshold of comfort if the hypothesis is proven true.
“There is frostbite; that’s real. And hypothermia,” Berryman said. “We don’t have to be freezing and shivering all the time. But I do think it’d make a difference. But we’ll see.”
