Thermal Sympatholysis, Adrenoceptor Blockers, and Fat

Ice cream and fireworks.

Ice Cream Haven

Last weekend, I joined the family on a trip to Disneyland.

This past weekend, I went with some friends to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. In semi-keeping with the blog's theme, I found myself in Shangri-La amidst a ton of desserts from the snack carts at both parks, including funnel cakes with Cold Stone ice cream and strawberry syrup, Ben and Jerry's, frozen bananas, and Dippin' Dots.

Thermal What?

It was notably sunnier at Discovery Kingdom than at Disneyland, and my lengthy exposure to the heat brought about a remarkable change in my appearance: I was profoundly more vascular in my extremities than before. I could clearly see the large cephalic vein running down my biceps in addition to the multitude of veins in my forearm.

Strauben.

My veins in my legs were terrifyingly superficial in a degree I'd never seen before (which explains why it was terrifying). I had veins running horizontally across my tibia (the shin).

It makes sense: one of the reasons that blood vessels dilate is to increase the dissipation of heat. Consequently, blood flow is improved.

And, in the context of fat loss, what else improves blood flow (or, at the very least, prevents it from being compromised)?

Wee!

Alpha Blockers

The answer is yohimbine.

So, I have a theory: to speed up fat oxidation following yohimbine supplementation, ideally one might want to promote vasodilation throughout the body during the period between ingestion and actual absorption of the drug, which would conceivably open up all avenues for fat oxidation in active tissues. This would mean either performing a small training bout, sitting in a sauna, or laying out in the sun. As exercise has variable effects on drug pharmacokinetics (and it depends on the drug), it is possible that the results would be more unpredictable following the former option.

And then, once yohimbine begins to be absorbed, you do the usual: be active. The conventional, but boring, route, is to do some formal cardio, but one can also do chores, work (and it obviously helps if the job requires you to be active for hours, like certain retail positions), or walk around in an amusement park all day while under the sun.