Posted by Ginger Plumbo (@gplumbo) · Sep 17, 2013
Mayo Clinic Announces NEAT Product Certification
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, known as NEAT™, focuses on the daily calories a person burns while doing normal, non-exercise activity. Examples of these activities are walking to meetings, pacing while on the phone, cleaning the house, cooking, folding laundry, climbing stairs or standing while talking to a friend. Not included are the calories burned during intense periods of exercise, such as long-distance biking, running, jogging or aerobics.
Leading obesity expert James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., and the Mayo Clinic Active Life Research Team have spent 10 years conducting medical research on nutrition, physical activity and behavior related to weight management and obesity prevention. This research concluded that a contributing factor to the obesity epidemic is the decrease in expenditure of human energy through lack of movement in daily life.
Research found that increasing the NEAT in daily life can result in sustainable weight loss and a dramatic improvement in overall health. This reduces obesity risk factors that include percent of body fat, Body Mass Index (BMI), cholesterol, the HDL/LDL ratio, and plasma triglycerides.
Gruve Technologies of Minneapolis has met the certification requirements, becoming the first company to have a NEAT-certified device. The device can be calibrated to the user's metabolism and habits, and measures and records NEAT activity intensity and duration. It also provides feedback to keep the user on track, with status lights, vibration to remind the user to move and an interactive website that displays visual success measures.
Mayo Clinic Ventures licenses the intellectual property behind NEAT to companies, allowing them to have nonexclusive use of this patented technology. Mayo Clinic also provides certification licenses to companies whose products meet NEAT requirements. The role of Mayo Clinic Ventures is to make Mayo innovations more broadly available to improve people's lives. Revenue Mayo receives from these activities is used to support its not-for-profit mission of patient care, education and research.
"As our civilization must keep moving to survive, NEAT is a lifesaving, accessible concept — anyone can do it. I am heartened that NEAT will help show the way," says Dr. Levine, an endocrinologist and the Richard Emslander Professor of Nutrition and Metabolism at Mayo Clinic.
Mayo Clinic and Dr. Levine have a financial interest in the technology referenced in this news release.
For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.org/neat/.
About Mayo Clinic
Recognizing 150 years of serving humanity in 2014, Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit 150years.mayoclinic.org, http://www.mayoclinic.org and newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org.