Methods and devices for activating brown adipose tissue with light

A medical method, comprising:

• positioning a housing in contact with tissue of a patient, the housing having housed therein a light source operatively positioned proximate to a depot of brown adipose tissue;
• activating the light source to deliver light energy to the patient to activate the brown adipose tissue and increase energy expenditure of the brown adipose tissue;
• after the activating, sensing with a sensor a characteristic of the brown adipose tissue and transmitting the sensed characteristic to a controller operatively coupled to the light source;
• changing, with the controller, the light energy being delivered by the light source based on the sensed characteristic, wherein the changing includes either turning off the light source to stop delivering the light energy or altering at least one of pulse duration, power, duty cycle, frequency of delivery, and wavelength of the light energy;
• delivering a light activatable medium to the depot of brown adipose tissue, the light activatable medium being configured to respond to the light energy when the light energy is delivered to the patient, the response of the light activatable medium causing activation of the brown adipose tissue;
• and
• delivering a different light activatable medium to the depot of brown adipose tissue, wherein:
• the housing has an additional light source housed therein positioned proximate to the depot of brown adipose tissue;
• the method further comprises activating the additional light source to deliver additional light energy to the patient to activate the brown adipose tissue and increase energy expenditure of the brown adipose tissue;
• the light energy has a first wavelength and the additional light energy has a different wavelength;
• the light activatable medium is activated by the first wavelength but is not activatable by the different wavelength;
• and
• the different light activatable medium is activated by the different wavelength but is not activatable by the first wavelength.