Home Science Natural Sciences Lack of a sense of smell helps you lose weight

According to the WHO, approximately 30% of the world's population is obese. The population of developed countries is particularly affected by this disease. To combat the problem of overweight more effectively, scientists have been actively studying the mechanisms of obesity and related metabolic processes in recent years. One of the most recent discoveries is the close connection between the olfactory receptors in the nose and weight gain.

It is not a matter of wanting to eat something that smells good. During experiments on laboratory mice, scientists noticed that if the rodent's olfactory receptors in the nose are "turned off", he begins to gain weight more slowly and even lose it. Initially, scientists thought that the animals began to consume less food due to the absence of an attractive smell for them. But a more detailed study found that the rodents continued to eat the same amounts, but their metabolism was different. An experiment with two groups of mice showed this clearly: normal mice and odorless mice. The second group, eating exactly the same amount of food as the first group, lost 16% of their excess weight in a few weeks.

Trying to understand the mechanism of weight loss, the scientists came to the conclusion that the olfactory receptors are connected to the part of the nervous system responsible for brown fat cells.
This is interesting: There are two kinds of fat in the human body, white and brown. White fat is deposited under the skin and upsets millions of people around the world when they look at themselves in the mirror. Brown fat is the ally of all those who dream of losing weight. When brown fat cells are activated, they convert white fat into energy, releasing heat.  

It turned out that when smells were "turned off," brown fat cells began to work harder, burning white fat, which is what causes weight gain. Normally, when the olfactory receptors are working, the brown fat cells have limited activity. Why this happens has yet to be discovered. In the meantime, it is clear that working olfactory receptors could be the key to fast and effective weight loss. But there is one problem that has yet to be solved: the increased stress on the cardiovascular system during the activation of brown fat cells.