Reduced Sunlight May Contribute to Winter Weight Gain
10th December 2021
A breakthrough study by University of Alberta researchers has shown the fat cells that lie just beneath our skin shrink when exposed to the blue light emitted by the sun.
“When the sun’s blue light wavelengths-the light we can see with our eye-penetrate our skin and reach the fat cells just beneath, lipid droplets reduce in size and are released out of the cell. In other words, our cells don’t store as much fat,” said Peter Light, senior author of the study, who is a professor of pharmacology and the director of the U of A’s Alberta Diabetes Institute.
“If you flip our findings around, the insufficient sunlight exposure we get eight months of the year living in a northern climate may be promoting fat storage and contributing to the typical weight gain some of us have over winter,” added the Dr. Charles A. Allard Chair in Diabetes Research.