ClinicalTrials.gg
Active, not recruitingNCT03541096WinterBATUpdated Aug 17, 2025

Winter-Swimming and Brown Adipose Tissue Activity in Middel-aged Obese Subjects (WinterBAT).

An interventional study of Winter Swimming and Control group in Adipose Tissue, Brown, Brown Adipose Tissue and Uncoupling Protein 1, sponsored by Kristian Karstoft. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in Denmark. Open to participants aged 40 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-08-17.

Sponsored by Kristian Karstoft · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
30
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
40 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Where this study stands

Counted across the records on this site · 2026-11-12

Among 350 studies in Obesity with a site in Denmark — 58 open to participants now, 84 under way, 23 of them phase 3. Obesity · Denmark.

Enrollment
196th of 282
30 · median 71
Started
2018
with 11 others
No phase
187 of 350
25 open now
Primary completion
2021-06
later than 2 of 83 live
Registered
189th of 350
by date

Among the 350 studies in Obesity with a site in Denmark, this one is the 196th largest by enrollment of the 282 interventional ones that give a count, is one of 12 that started in 2018, is one of 187 with no phase, reaches primary completion later than 2 of the 83 other live ones, and was the 189th registered.

Obesity

11,529 studies on the registry are indexed under Obesity; 2,035 are open to participants now.

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Open to participants now

58 of the 350 studies in Obesity with a site in Denmark are open now. Recruiting first, the newest first:

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A study can be open while its sites in Denmark have not opened yet or have stopped. Only those recruiting at a site in Denmark →

Who these studies take

Of the 1,336 Obesity studies recruiting now, 377 (28%) set no upper age limit and 856 (64%) stop at 75 or younger; 166 take children under 18; 488 take healthy volunteers.

This study: 40 Years and older · all sexes · no healthy volunteers.

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02

Study summary

This study investigates repetitive cold-water exposure on brown fat activity assessed by PET/CT scanning. Furthermore we will assess glucose control upon winter-swimming. Obese prediabetic men and women will be randomized to winter-swimming or control conditions for 4 months.

Read the detailed description

Brown fat (BAT) is an energy-consuming tissue. Long-term activation of BAT in adults increases clearance of blood glucose and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), insulin sensitivity and metabolic rate. Moreover, adipokines released from BAT, known as batokines, represent a promising but currently unexplored area in terms of metabolic regulation. Cooling activates BAT; however, current cooling protocols fail to activate BAT in a large part of the population. Whether this failure in activation is related to biology, inefficient detection or cooling protocols is unknown. With our initial acute cooling study (protocol number: H-16038581), these protocols have successfully been optimized whereupon novel batokines will be identified. Having established a methodology for assessing BAT activity and batokine profiles, a longer-term cooling intervention (winter swimming) will be performed to examine the effect of repetitive cold-water exposure on BAT activity. Obese pre-diabetic subjects will be included in a 4-month supervised winter swimming (WS) intervention.

It is hypothesized, that repetitive cold-water exposure constituted by WS, increase BAT activation and volume, followed by improved glycemic control in obese pre-diabetic subjects.

Method The study is a randomized controlled, parallel-group intervention study. The investigator will recruit 30 obese pre-diabetic non-winter-swimmers to participate in a WS intervention group (n=15) or control group (n=15) with no WS activities. Subjects will either be randomized to the WS group, who will winter-swim 4 months, 2-3 times/week including sauna-visits if desired, or control conditions with no WS during the 4 months (October to May).

Main aims

  • To assess whether WS will have an immediate effect on BAT recruitment or function.
  • To assess whether WS will have an effect on glycemic control.
03

Conditions studied

  • Adipose Tissue, Brown
  • Brown Adipose Tissue
  • Uncoupling Protein 1
  • Cold Exposure
  • Obesity
  • Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
  • Winter Swimming
04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
40 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Waist circumference above 80 cm for women and 94 cm for men.
  • > 25 but \<40 kg/m2
  • Age > 40 years.
  • Low to moderate physical activity level (no physical activity or on average 30 minutes of moderate physical activity per day and not more than 3 hours of training pr. Week)

Subjects will be included in either one of these cases after the screening:

  • Fasting plasma glucose above 5.6 millimol per liter (mmoL/L).
  • >39 millimol per mol (mmol/mol).
  • 2 hour plasma glucose after a 75 g. oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) above 7.8 mmol/L.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Winter swimmer
  • Any history of Cancer,
  • liver, kidney, heart, inflammatory or lung-disease.
  • Pregnancy
  • Taking medication (not for hay fever), including glucose-lowering treatment.
  • >55 mmol/mol and/or 2-h plasma glucose in the 75-g OGTT > 15 mmol/L, fasting plasma glucose above 6.9.
  • Iron deficiency
  • Increased for coagulation (INR).
  • Femoral hernia, vene prostheses (pants prosthesis), thrombs in v. Femoralis.
  • Abnormal ultrasound echocardiography of the heart found at the health-examination day.
  • to cold exposure including severe Raynauds disease.
  • History of alcohol abuse or use of more than 14 units pr. Week.
  • History of drug abuse, including marihuana.
  • Smoking including occasional smoking.
  • Pacemaker or other electronics implanted in the body.
  • Claustrophobia, communication problems, including understanding the experimental protocol.
  • History of contrast allergy.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(5)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

HbA1c

A blood test of average blood sugar over the past two to three months, given as a percentage or in mmol/mol. 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) or more is the usual threshold for diabetes, normally confirmed by a second test.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
30 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Winter Swimmers

    4 Months of supervised winter swimming.

    Behavioral: Winter Swimming

  • Placebo comparator
    Control group

    No winter swimming activities.

    Behavioral: Control group

Interventions

  • BehavioralWinter Swimming

    Supervised Winter Swimming in Copenhagen

  • BehavioralControl group

    No winter swimming activities.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Difference between groups in change in brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity during cooling

    BAT activity is measured using positron emission tomography (PET)- Computer tomography (CT) scan. The PET-CT scan uses a glucose-radiotracer (fludeoxyglucose-18 (FDG)) to measure the glucose uptake in BAT, which is associated with BAT activity. FDG is injected following one hour of cooling and the subjects are scanned following one additional hour of cooling. The subjects are continuously cooled throughout the scanning procedure. Difference between groups in change in FDG tracer uptake (post minus pre intervention) during 1,5 hours of cooling is calculated.

    Time frame: Day 0 (before intervention) and Day 120 (after intervention)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Difference between groups in change in glycemic control

    Glycemic control is measured using a 4 hour mixed meal tolerance test. Difference between groups in change in the mean MMTT glucose levels during the MMTT (post minus pre intervention) will be calculated.

    Time frame: Day 0 (before intervention) and Day 120 (after intervention)

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Center for Inflammation and Metabolism/ Center for Physical Activity Research
    Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Nov 2018 to primary completion in Jun 2021, 30 months.

Of 3,683 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Obesity, half reached primary completion within 23 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 43. This study's 30 months is above that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 3,846 studies reached it within 22 months; a quarter within 9 and three quarters within 42.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
May 17, 2018
First posted
May 30, 2018
StartActual
Nov 7, 2018
Primary completionActual
Jun 1, 2021
CompletionEst.
Dec 31, 2025
Last update
Aug 17, 2025
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 17, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03541096
Lead sponsor
Kristian Karstoft
Responsible party
Kristian Karstoft (MD, PhD, Chief Physician, Rigshospitalet, Denmark) — Sponsor-investigator
First posted
May 30, 2018
Start date
Nov 7, 2018
Primary completion
Jun 1, 2021
Completion
Dec 31, 2025 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 17, 2025

Study contacts

Camilla Schéele, PhD
principal investigator · Rigshospitalet, Denmark

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in May 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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