Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

Scientists Discover a Way to Stop Dangerous Belly Fat

As people grow older, changes in the body are not just about wrinkles or slower movement—they also involve how fat is stored. One of the most concerning changes is the increase in belly fat, especially a type known as visceral fat. Unlike the fat just under the skin, visceral fat builds up deep inside the abdomen and surrounds vital organs. This type of fat is strongly linked to serious health problems such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Now, scientists have found a promising way to control this dangerous fat, offering new hope for healthier aging and better recovery after serious injuries.

Understanding the Problem: Fat Redistribution with Age

As we age, the body doesn’t just gain fat—it redistributes it. Most fat in the body is subcutaneous fat, which lies just beneath the skin. This type of fat is generally harmless and even necessary for normal body functions. However, aging often causes fat to shift toward the abdominal area, increasing visceral fat levels.

This shift is risky because visceral fat surrounds internal organs like the liver and intestines. Over time, it can interfere with normal body functions and increase inflammation, raising the risk of chronic diseases.

Hormones Play a Key Role

Scientists have long suspected that hormones influence how fat is stored in the body. Recent research highlights the important role of testosterone—a hormone present in both men and women—in controlling fat distribution.

As people age, levels of sex hormones like testosterone naturally decline. This drop appears to be linked to the increase in visceral fat. Instead of fat being stored safely under the skin, it starts accumulating around internal organs.

Traditional weight loss methods, such as dieting, do not specifically target visceral fat. In older adults, these approaches can even be harmful because they often lead to muscle loss along with fat loss. Maintaining muscle strength is critical for mobility, balance, and overall health, especially in later life.

A New Approach: Testosterone Gel and Exercise

To explore a better solution, researchers conducted a clinical study focusing on older women recovering from hip fractures—a group particularly vulnerable to health decline.

Hip fractures are a major concern among older adults, especially women. They can lead to reduced mobility, loss of independence, and increased risk of further health complications. Recovery is often slow, and during this period, visceral fat tends to increase.

In this study, scientists tested whether a simple hormone treatment could make a difference. They combined a topical testosterone gel with a structured exercise program to see if it could help control fat distribution.

Inside the Study

The study involved 66 women aged 65 and older who were recovering from recent hip fractures. Before starting, each participant underwent a DXA scan, a method used to measure body composition, including fat and muscle levels.

All participants followed the same exercise routine designed to support recovery. However, only half of them received the testosterone gel as part of their treatment.

The study lasted for six months, during which researchers carefully monitored changes in body composition.

Remarkable Results

At the end of the study, the overall body fat levels in both groups remained similar. However, the key difference was where the fat was stored.

Women who used the testosterone gel showed lower levels of visceral fat. In contrast, those who did not receive the hormone treatment experienced an increase in visceral fat—a common outcome during aging and injury recovery.

This result was significant because it showed that the treatment did not just reduce fat overall but specifically targeted the harmful visceral fat. In other words, it helped the body store fat in a safer way.

Why This Matters

This discovery could change how doctors approach aging and recovery. Instead of focusing only on weight loss, treatments could aim to improve fat distribution, which may be more important for long-term health.

Reducing visceral fat can lower the risk of serious diseases, improve metabolic health, and enhance overall well-being. For older adults recovering from injuries, it could also mean faster recovery and better quality of life.

Importantly, this approach avoids one of the biggest drawbacks of traditional weight loss—muscle loss. By combining hormone therapy with exercise, patients can maintain or even improve muscle strength while reducing harmful fat.

A Step Toward Healthier Aging

The findings suggest that hormone-based treatments, when used carefully, could play a valuable role in managing age-related health issues. For older women, especially those recovering from injuries like hip fractures, this could be a game changer.

Improved fat distribution not only supports physical health but also helps individuals regain independence and confidence. Being able to move freely and perform daily activities without assistance is a key part of healthy aging.

Looking Ahead

While the results are promising, researchers emphasize that more studies are needed to confirm long-term safety and effectiveness. Hormone treatments must always be used under medical supervision, as they can have side effects if not properly managed.

Future research may explore how this approach works in different populations, including men and younger individuals, and whether similar benefits can be achieved in other health conditions.

Conclusion

Aging is a natural process, but its health impacts do not have to be unavoidable. This new research offers a hopeful message: it may be possible to control one of the most dangerous aspects of aging—visceral fat—through a simple and targeted approach.

By combining testosterone therapy with regular exercise, scientists have shown that the body’s fat distribution can be improved, even during recovery from serious injury. This breakthrough could lead to better health outcomes, improved recovery, and a higher quality of life for millions of older adults.

In the future, managing where fat is stored—not just how much we have—could become a key strategy in staying healthy as we age.

Reference:

  1. Jacob E. Earp, Shangshu Zhao, Furong Xu, Chia-Ling Kuo, Jenna M. Bartley, Richard H. Fortinsky, Jatupol Kositsawat, Carlos O. Rehbein, Ellen F. Binder, Jennifer Stevens-Lapsley, George A. Kuchel. Testosterone therapy effects adipose distribution in older females post hip-fracture: The STEP-HI study. Obesity Pillars, 2026; 17: 100247 DOI: 10.1016/j.obpill.2026.100247

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more