Gut Flora, Antibiotics and Pro-Biotics Might Equal Balanced Weight?

[alfreda89]

An interesting post about "Manipulating the Microbiome" to regulate weight gain.

From the article:

In a study, published Aug. 26 in the journal Nature Immunology, a research team based at the University of Chicago was able to unravel some of the mechanisms that regulate this weight gain. They focused on the relationship between the immune system, gut bacteria, digestion and obesity. They showed how weight gain requires not just caloric overload but also a delicate, adjustable -- and transmissible -- interplay between intestinal microbes and the immune response.

"Diet-induced obesity depends not just on calories ingested but also on the host's microbiome," said the study's senior author Yang-Xin Fu, MD, PhD, professor of pathology at the University of Chicago Medicine. For most people, he said, "host digestion is not completely efficient, but changes in the gut flora can raise or lower digestive efficiency."

So the old adage "you are what you eat" needs to be modified, Fu suggested, to include, "as processed by the microbial community of the distal gut and as regulated by the immune system."

I'm taking this as a reminder that I was feeling better when I took a pro-biotic every day. Time to return to that.

Comments

[pameladean]

I've been reading tentative articles about the relative efficiency or lack thereof of gut bacteria and its relationship to obesity for five or six years now. It's fascinating, and just puts another nail in the coffin of the whole "fat is an issue of self-control and you are immoral if you can't lose weight" industry.

I wonder when they will start selling putative inefficient gut bacteria to replace the overly efficient colonies one may have.

P.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

There are people out there actually going to third world countries to acquire types of intestinal parasites that make their severe-to-incapacitation allergies go away. I considered it briefly, but still think I can do this here, and probiotics are part of the secret.

My problem was damage from a spirochete, and antibiotics. Not quite the same thing, but the same result -- unhappy gut.