Dr. Rhonda Patrick

So they have, well, they have a double membrane, first of all, their structure, but they have a negative charge on the inside and they have a positive charge on the inner membrane.

Basically you can uncouple that charge.

And so that positive charge protons start leaking out of the mitochondria and your mitochondria freak out.

So this is called uncoupling it.

And they start to – it's maximum respiration, as we call it.

They try to make as much energy.

They're like, I've got to get that proton back, that gradient, the electrochemical gradient.

And so they just go insane.

And in this case, it's uncoupled energy.

So the energy they're making is actually heat, not ATP.

But heat is – but you're essentially burning substrate.

So who cares?

You're burning –

you're burning glucose, you're burning lipids, you know, you're basically burning things and making heat.

And so that's what uncoupling does.

And that is a much more efficient way of producing heat than shivering.

So as you become more adapted, maybe the longer duration that you've stayed in the cold or the more times you've done it, you'll no longer shiver anymore.

You will start to then just do this uncoupling type of thermogenesis, as it's called.

And

Another type of adaptation that occurs is you actually produce more mitochondria in your adipose tissue.