Stockholm, Sweden — Shivering after repeated short-term cold exposure improves glucose tolerance, lowers fasting blood sugar and lipid levels, and significantly lowers blood pressure, new research in adults shows. increase. obesity and overweight.
Adam Sellers, a PhD student at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, presented preliminary findings at this year’s European Diabetes Society (EASD) Annual Meeting, stating:to measure type 2 diabetes.”
Sellers found that 10 one-hour daily shakes at 10°C lowered fasting blood sugar in 85% of participants, lowered lipid levels by 32%, and lowered blood pressure by approximately 8% overall. discovered.
Cold exposure is known to increase brown fat, but Sellers does not believe this explains his findings. and skeletal muscle may play a more important role than brown fat.
“Muscles can contract mechanically— [the concept of the] Shivering — It produces heat, and since humans have significantly more muscle than brown fat, shivering can burn more calories and produce more heat.
In the future, “similar to saunas and steam rooms, there may be cold rooms where people go to the cold room and sit and shiver, or where patients go to the hospital and shivering can be induced.” added.
Audience member Dr. Anna Kreuk, professor of integrative physiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, commented on the study, saying the results were “strong” and demonstrated the metabolic effects of shivering. One thing is, given the time subjects had to spend in one hour of shivering over ten days, one question is whether one hour of exercise has a similarly strong effect, and perhaps for some reason the For people unable to do this, this may be a good alternative.”
As for translation into practice, she says, “It depends on how well this is tolerated. It also shows how important muscle is in regulating metabolism. , which has been shown to be not sufficient, especially given the low amount of brown fat compared to muscle at half our body weight, and this has implications for the role of brown fat.
Denis P. Blondin, Ph.D. “
“Although some would argue that it is impractical to suggest cold exposure as a treatment, people believe that cold exposure (mainly by immersion in cold water) has grown in popularity over the past five years, and many Nordic It overlooks the fact that it has become a cultural staple for humans (see the use of saunas and cold water swimming in Finland and other Nordic countries),” said Blondie of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sherbrooke University, Quebec, Canada. Ng added.
“It can certainly be uncomfortable at first (like starting an exercise program), but we adapt quickly,” he added.
1 hour in cold water suit to induce shivering
In the current study, Sellers exposed overweight/obese (BMI 27-35 kg/m²) adults (40-75 years, 11 males, 4 postmenopausal females) to 10 consecutive cold exposures,1 shivered for at least 1 hour per cold exposure. .
“The tremors of this new study were more intense [than in prior studies] Induced by another cold exposure method, 10 °C water perfusion suit [compared with a prior study of 14-15°C, 6 hours/day]This facilitated shorter cold exposure periods that we thought were feasible for participants,” Sellers explained.
“At baseline, participants were consuming glucose, A1c Levels at the upper end of normal norms [5.5 mmol/l and 5.4%, respectively]” he said, referring to measurements suggesting a possible progression to type 2 diabetes.
He explained how the cold exposure was applied. “We induced cold with a water-perfused suit worn by the participants. A stream of 10°C water cooled the participants. . for 10 days.”
Participants’ shivering-induced heat production was measured via the surface electromyogram and visual observation to confirm the presence of tremors.
Before and after 10 days of shaking, physiological measurements were taken in the morning while participants were at rest in an overnight fasting and heat-neutral state. Blood pressure and fasting blood sugar were measured.
A 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed for each participant twice: the morning before the 10-day shivering course and the morning after the final 10-day shivering course.
The primary endpoint was the change before and after the 10-day shivering intervention, expressed as the total area under the curve of glucose levels over time during the OGTT.
“It provides measurements of blood glucose levels before and after 10 shivering sessions over 10 days.”
In this study, shivering was induced using a water-perfused suit.
Lower fasting blood sugar and blood lipids, and improve glucose tolerance
After 10 shivering sessions, mean fasting plasma glucose decreased significantly in 13 of the 15 participants compared to before the first session (from 5.84 mmol/L to 5.67 mmol/L ). P. = .013).
6% improvement in glucose tolerance during OGTT (P. = .041). “You can see that this is not due to their change insulin Referencing the finding that plasma insulin concentrations did not change at baseline and during the OGTT, Sellers said.
Fasting plasma triglyceride and free fatty acid concentrations were also significantly reduced by 32% (P. = .001) and 11% (P. = .036), respectively.
“This is important because free fatty acids insulin resistance‘ said Sellers. “Additionally, a significant reduction in serum. Triglyceride can affect atherosclerosis, which may also be beneficial. ”
Sellers also found a 10 mmHg or 7.4% reduction in systolic blood pressure (P. < .001), diastolic blood pressure was 7 mmHg or 8.1% (P. < .001) average. This decline was seen in all participants.
“Again, quite surprisingly, all participants” showed a drop in blood pressure, Sellers said, which she said was related to a lower resting heart rate (P. = .062).
Brown fat or skeletal muscle contraction?
Sellers said that even though thermogenesis without shivering is involved in mild cold acclimation, previous data suggest that some mild muscle activity or shivering induces the beneficial metabolic effects of cold acclimation. He pointed out that it suggests that it is important in terms of
“Brown fat is the body’s metabolic heating system, which burns calories,” Sellers explained. is activated when it is cold or during meals, but its activity is low in the elderly, obese and diabetic people.
“In the future, we may investigate the effects of shorter durations to better elucidate the optimal duration and strength of the required tremors: more intense tremors.”
“Our findings are encouraging and may have important health implications. Future studies will evaluate the effects of shivering in adults with type 2 diabetes,” he concluded.
seller and crook No related financial relationships have been reported.
EASD 2022 Annual Meeting. Announced September 22, 2022. Abstract 160.
Follow us for diabetes and endocrinology news twitter When Facebook.
