These days it seems everyone is trying to get rid of fat, especially with swimsuit season approaching. But did you know that our bodies actually contain a good kind of fat that can help you lose weight?

Biochemist Sheila Collins, the latest addition to the faculty at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona, is conducting research to better understand “good fat” and to figure out how to put it to work.

“There are actually two kinds of fat: white fat cells, which are the ones that come to mind when we think about fat, and brown fat cells, a kind of fat that acts sort of like a furnace,” generating heat and burning calories, Collins said.

A major goal for Collins and other scientists is to find safe ways to “switch on” brown fat, allowing people to lose weight by burning more calories.

“Dr. Collins is one of the few people worldwide who are unraveling the basis for how the so-called ‘good fat,’ or brown fat, is capable of burning excess calories,” said Dr. Daniel Kelly, director of Sanford-Burnham at the emerging “medical city” in southeast Orlando. “She brings this exciting project to the Sanford-Burnham site in Orlando with the long-term goal of developing new therapies for the treatment of obesity and its complications.”

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Quitting smoking is a no-brainer when it comes to reducing the chances of lung cancer. But did you know that putting down that cigarette for good can also lessen your chances of getting breast, prostate and bladder cancer? There’s even evidence that smoking can increase your risk for leukemia.

A healthy diet and exercise not only reduce the risk for heart disease, they can also help prevent many types of cancers.

Oncologists at Florida’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando looked at five cancers _ lung, breast, prostate, skin, colon and rectal _ and how changes in behavior can help prevent them. Their observations were recently published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Clarence Brown, president and CEO of M.D. Anderson, part of the life-sciences cluster at the emerging “medical city” at Lake Nona, was among the co-authors who shared article highlights with the Orlando Sentinel.

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That old adage about caloric overindulgence doesn’t just apply to noticeably visible parts of the body.

Scientists at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at Lake Nona are looking at ways fat is deposited in and around the heart to find new ways to treat diabetes and its heart-related complications.

In a lecture Wednesday, Burnham’s scientific director Daniel P. Kelly explained how the body processes fat overload, and how his lab is working to find new treatments for heart disease associated with too much fat.

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The Veterans Administration has awarded a $9.2 million contract to RBVetCo to begin the site work, utilities and the main loop road for the new Orlando VA Medical Center.

The Pittsburgh-based general contractor is expected to start work later this month.

Continue Reading RBVetCo gets $9.2M Orlando VA contract