In a constant race to maintain a perfect body, most people struggle to maintain their body weight, especially those who are facing obesity problems. Diet plans, exercise, switching food habits or even resorting to certain medicines, there are various ways in which they struggle to maintain their body health. Now, scientists have created a new type of skin patch which will help one reduce the body fat.

Scientists from Nanyang Technology University in Singapore developed this innovative technology that helps reduce obesity by delivering drugs that can turn energy-storing fat into energy-burning fat. This skin patch has hundreds of micro-needles, thinner than the human hair which is loaded with a drug called thyroid hormone T3 triiodothyronine. When it is pressed on the skin, the needles become embedded in the skin. The patch needs to be pressed for 2 minutes and then removed. When the needles degrade, the drug molecules slowly diffuse into energy-storing fats under the skin and turn them into energy-burning brown fats.

This patch is especially for those facing obesity and may have to resort to operations for treatment. That medication and their large dosages can cause side effects at times. Obesity is a major cause of health-related diseases including heart-attack and type 2 diabetes. "What we aim to develop is a painless patch that everyone could use easily, is unobtrusive and yet affordable. Most importantly, our solution aims to use a person's own body fats to burn more energy, which is a natural process in babies," said Chen Peng, from the Nanyang Technological University.

According to The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates 1.9 billion adults in the world were overweight in 2016 with 650 million of them being obese, researchers said. If this approach proves successful then it will be a great step in fighting the problem of obesity.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 08, 2018 10:27 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).