Aussie researchers discover pathway key to weight loss

Australian scientists have discovered a pathway key to accelerating weight loss.

The study, published by Melbourne's Monash University on Tuesday, discovered that "rewiring" pathways in the central nervous system significantly increased the body's fat-burning ability.

The discovery by the team from Monash University marks the end of a seven-year global race to discover how to "flick the switch" in the body to aid weight loss.

Researchers discovered that keeping mice at eight degrees Celsius for a week activated a process within the central nervous system which caused white fat, which stores energy, to turn into brown-like fat which burns energy, previously thought to only exist in babies and small mammals.

Brian Oldfield, a member of the Department of Physiology at Monash University, said they also discovered changes in the "last relay" of nerve cell connections that travel from the brain cells directly to the transformed "beige" fat cells.

"It refocuses the spotlight on the coordination of these events in the central nervous system bringing this to center stage and de-emphasises the role played by peripheral processes happening in the fat," Oldfield said.

"We know that for such events to be properly orchestrated in a way that will help animals and humans react properly to changes in temperature and diet, there has to be coordination of that change in the central nervous system."

He said identifying the process was a significant step towards identifying the process that could be changed, mimicked or blocked to turn "bad fat to good fat."

"The issue is that there is a finite amount of bona fide brown fat in humans - only about 50-70 grams," Oldfield told news Limited on Tuesday.

"The hope is that by inducing brown-like fat you can improve the capacity to burn energy.

"It's a matter of trying to find the gateway to activating those pathways." Endit