Muscles that burn energy without contracting have yielded new clues about how the body retains a constant temperature – and they may provide new targets for combating obesity. Traditionally, the body’s main thermostat was thought to be brown fat. It raids the body’s white fat stores in cold conditions to burn energy and keep the body warm. Muscles also play a role in keeping the body warm by contracting and triggering the shiver response – but this is only a short-term fix because prolonged shivering damages muscles. Now it seems that muscles have another way to turn up the heat. “Our findings demonstrate for the first time that muscle, which accounts for 40 per cent of body weight in humans, can generate heat independent of shivering,” says Muthu Periasamy of Ohio State University in Columbus. (via Muscles that do nothing can keep you warm and thin - health - 09 September 2012 - New Scientist)
