Researchers in Hamilton have discovered how to turn back the clock on the body's metabolism, potentially paving the way for people to eat and burn calories like they did when they were teenagers.

They're calling it a possible solution to obesity and a preventativemeasure for diabetes, one that turns up the body's metabolic rate without the negative side effects of increasing the heart rate or blood pressure.

Published inNature MedicineMonday, researchers from McMaster University show that by inhibiting the hormone serotonin found in the gut of mice, the body's natural furnace, a lesser-known organ called brown adipose tissue, is more active and burns more calories.

Brown adipose tissue is found near the collar bone, and is also known as brown fat. It has no relation to white fat, the fat stores found all over the body, and was previously thought to only exist in rodents, hibernating animals and children, says the paper's co-authorGregory Steinberg, a professor of medicine at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.

Our results are quite striking and indicate that inhibiting the production of [serotonin] may be very effective for reversing obesity and related metabolic diseases including diabetes,"Steinberg said.

Brown fat plays an important role in burning calories and increasing a person's basal metabolic rate, the resting rate at which someone burns calories.

Researchers say a "western diet" high in fat also raises levels of the hormone serotonin, which inhibits brown fat activity, slowing downone's metabolism as they age.

"Too much of this serotonin acts like the parking brake on your brown fat, Steinberg explained. You can step on the gas of the brown fat, but it doesnt go anywhere.

By inhibiting the production of serotonin, Steinberg says they have releasedthat "parking break" on the brown fat. The implications, Steinberg said, could be both in reversing obesity, but also preventing diabetes by burning sugar in brown fat so the body does not have to produce insulin in the pancreasto regulate blood sugar.

"We're talking about intervening in the pre-diabetes stage or the early stages of diabetes to try and treat it," Steinberg said.

Read more from the original source:

Want to eat like a teenager again? McMaster scientists may have found a way