Overweight? Blame the bacteria in your gut

[Guest guest]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16296772/

 

Overweight? Blame the bacteria in your gut

 

'Microbial component' may contribute to obesity, research indicates

 

WASHINGTON - The size of your gut may be partly shaped by which microbes

call it home, according to new research linking obesity to types of

digestive bacteria.

Both obese mice - and people - had more of one type of bacteria and less

of another kind, according to two studies published Thursday in the

journal Nature.

 

A " microbial component " appears to contribute to obesity, said study

lead author Jeffrey Gordon, director of Washington University's Center

for Genome Sciences.

 

Obese humans and mice had a lower percentage of a family of bacteria

called Bacteroidetes and more of a type of bacteria called Firmicutes,

Gordon and his colleagues found.

 

The researchers aren't sure if more Firmicutes makes you fat or if

people who are obese grow more of that type of bacteria.

 

But growing evidence of this link gives scientists a potentially new and

still distant way of fighting obesity: Change the bacteria in the

intestines and stomach. It also may lead to a way of fighting

malnutrition in the developing world.

 

Nikhil Dhurandhar, a professor of infection and obesity at Louisiana

State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center, wasn't part of

the research, but said it may change the way obesity is treated

eventually.

 

" We are getting more and more evidence to show that obesity isn't what

we thought it used to be, " Dhurandhar said. " It isn't just (that) you're

eating too much and you're lazy. "

 

He said the field of " infectobesity " looks at obesity with multiple

causes, including viruses and microbes. In another decade or so, the

different causes of obesity could have different treatments. The current

regimen of diet and exercise " is like treating all fevers with one

aspirin, " Dhurandhar said.

 

In one study, Gordon and colleagues looked at what happened in mice with

changes in bacteria level. When lean mice with no germs in their guts

had larger ratios of Firmicutes transplanted, they got " twice as fat "

and took in more calories from the same amount of food than mice with

the more normal bacteria ratio, said Washington University microbiology

instructor Ruth Ley, a study co-author.

It was as if one group got far more calories from the same bowl of

Cheerios than the other, Gordon said.

 

In a study of dozen dieting people, the results also were dramatic.

 

Before dieting, about 3 percent of the gut bacteria in the obese

participants was Bacteroidetes. But after dieting, the now normal-sized

people had much higher levels of Bacteroidetes - close to 15 percent,

Gordon said.

 

" I think that gut bacteria affects body weight, " said Virginia

Commonwealth University pathology professor Richard Atkinson, who wasn't

part of the research team and is president of Obetech Obesity Research

Center in Richmond. " I don't think there's any doubt about that and they

showed that. "

 

Most microbes beneficial

 

The growing field of research puts more importance in the trillions of

microbes that live in our guts and elsewhere, crediting it with

everything from generations of people getting taller to increases in

diabetes and asthma.

 

People are born germ-free, but within days they have a gut blooming with

microbes. The microbes come from first foods - either breast milk or

formula - the exterior environment, and the way the babies are born,

said Stanford University medicine and microbiology professor David

Relman, who was not part of the study.

 

For decades, doctors have treated bacteria in a " warlike " manner, yet

recent research shows that " most encounters we have with microbes are

very beneficial, " Gordon said.

 

" Much of who we are and what we can do and can't do as human beings is

directly related to microbial inhabitants, " Relman said.

 

© 2006 The Associated Press.

[Guest guest]

People on the candidiasis group are losing weight for two reasons;

less simple and complex dietary carbohydrates, and using the

prebiotic inulin to force an increase or normalization of probiotic

orgsanisms, which reduce the numbers of almost all the other

organisms because they can't tolerate the acidity.

 

There's more detail; Googling " inulin references " turns up the

details and references.

 

Some of the things we discuss also touch on the body's tendency to

overweight and edema due to toxin load. Much of that load is created

by dysbiosis, bad bowel bacteria, and the diet reduces toxin load too.

 

Bonnie.

 

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nevercomestheday wrote:

>

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16296772/

>

> Overweight? Blame the bacteria in your gut

>

> 'Microbial component' may contribute to obesity, research indicates

>

> WASHINGTON - The size of your gut may be partly shaped by which

microbes

> call it home, according to new research linking obesity to types of

> digestive bacteria.

> Both obese mice - and people - had more of one type of bacteria and

less

> of another kind, according to two studies published Thursday in the

> journal Nature.

>

> A " microbial component " appears to contribute to obesity, said study

> lead author Jeffrey Gordon, director of Washington University's

Center

> for Genome Sciences.

>

> Obese humans and mice had a lower percentage of a family of bacteria

> called Bacteroidetes and more of a type of bacteria called

Firmicutes,

> Gordon and his colleagues found.

>