Gut bacteria "may be obesity weapon"

[Agramon]

Bacteria living in our guts seem to be affecting our waistlines and harnessing them could lead to new ways of shedding the pounds, US research suggests.

The human body is teeming with thousands of species of microbes that affect health.

A study showed that transplanting gut bacteria from obese people into mice led to the animals gaining weight, while bacteria from lean people kept them slim.

The findings were published in Science.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, Missouri, took gut bacteria from pairs of twins - one obese, one thin.

The bacteria were then put into mice which had grown up in completely sterile environments and had no gut bacteria of their own.

Mice with the obese twin's bacteria became heavier and put on more fat than mice given bacteria from a lean twin - and it was not down to the amount of food being eaten.

There were differences in the number and types of bacteria species from the lean and obese twin.

Overall it seemed those from a lean twin were better at breaking down fibre into short-chain fatty acids. It meant the body was taking up more energy from the gut, but the chemicals were preventing fatty tissue from building up and increased the amount of energy being burned.

One of the researchers, Prof Jeffrey Gordon, told the BBC's Science in Action programme: "We don't dine alone, we dine with trillions of friends - we have to consider the microbes which live in our gut."

However, the diet was also important for creating the right conditions for the lean twin's bacteria to flourish. A bacterial obesity therapy seems unlikely to work alongside a a diet of greasy burgers.

Keeping both sets of mice in the same cage kept them both lean if they were fed a low-fat, high-fibre diet. Mice are coprophagic, meaning they eat each other's droppings, and the lean twin's bacteria were passed into the mice which started with bacteria that should have made them obese.

However, a high-fat, low-fibre diet meant the mice still piled on the pounds.
Human therapies?

A human obesity treatment is unlikely to use transplants of thousands of species of bacteria from lean people's guts as it carries the risk of also transferring infectious diseases.

Instead a search for the exact mix of bacteria which benefit weight - and the right foods to promote their growth - is more likely.

Prof Gordon said the next steps in the field would be "trying to figure out how general these effects are, what diet ingredients may promote their beneficial activities and to look forward to a time when food and the value of food is considered in light of the microbes that live in our gut - that foods will have to be designed from the inside out as well as from the outside in."

Commenting on the research, Prof Julian Parkhill, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said he expected a future when manipulating bacteria was a part of obesity treatment.

"There's a lot of work to do, but this is proof of concept that bacteria in the gut can modulate obesity in adults, but it is diet-dependent," he said.

He added that changing bacteria was a promising field for other diseases.

He told the BBC: "It's an exciting new area, but I think we need to be careful in promoting it as a cure-all.

"It's clear in specific areas - inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, Crohn's - the microbiome is going to be important."

Link

[LikelyToBreak]

Kind of sounds like we have been hearing all along.  "Eat more fiber and stay away from fatty foods."   But, I guess we could throw in the idea of giving more rimmers to skinny people.   :-k   I'm not sure, but I kind of like the idea.  :-D

[Sal1981]

My brother has Crohn's disease, but he's already slim.

[Colanth]

It's just another case of people looking for a "slim pill".  As the research showed, having the slim bacteria, but eating a high-fat diet, won't accomplish much.  If being slim means changing the way we eat, America will continue to be an obese nation.

[Agramon]

It's just another case of people looking for a "slim pill".  As the research showed, having the slim bacteria, but eating a high-fat diet, won't accomplish much.  If being slim means changing the way we eat, America will continue to be an obese nation.

If this research proves accurate, you might be able to take probiotics before/during a diet to enable you to lose weight more efficiently. It also might help reduce the GI issues associated with major diet switch, not to mention the possibilities with GI diseases.

[Colanth]

But there's that word again - diet.  Most [s:12fs0z80]morons[/s:12fs0z80] Americans want to just take a pill, then eat anything, and any amount, they want, and still lose weight.

How many people still smoke?  Giving up burgers is just about as difficult.  (I've given both up, so it's not just a guess.)

[hillbillyatheist]

As a fat guy I can tell you losing weight is not easy.

skinny people seem to think we just set around shoving twinkies down our throats all day. when in truth two people can eat the same things and do the same amount of exercise and yet one gain weight and the other don't.

on top of that dealing with hunger is a bitch.

trying to lose weight is like trying to quit dope, only you need a little bit of a hit every day to stay alive, and you're surrounded by mountains of dope and everybody uses.


and if that ain't enough the body has all kinds of tricks up its sleeve to keep you fat.

you cut your diet down, and suddenly your body drops its metabolism while jacking up the hunger hormones because it thinks a famine has hit.

there's a reason like 97% of overweight people gain it back after 5 years.

so yeah I'm one of those dumb americans waiting on a pill.  

that's not to say I'm not doing stuff already like taking walks and trying to cut back, but still, they come out with a pill that works I'll be all over that shit.

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/fat- ... o-science/

[Colanth]

so yeah I'm one of those dumb americans waiting on a pill.

Don't get me wrong. I exercise as much as someone in constant pain can.  And my daily caloric intake would probably make a large mouse suffer hunger pangs.  But the majority of the terminally stupid seem to think that the reason that science hasn't come out with a pill to {make you thin|make you understand any number of really difficult things|make you pretty/handsome|etc.} is a conspiracy of some kind.  But they'd scream bloody murder if science DID come out with a pill to make you thin, but 1 out of every 2 million people who took it died, and claim that science doesn't really work.

[hillbillyatheist]

oh yeah I'm with you there.

I hear some cool stuff is being turned over in the labs that may cure obesity within 5-10 years. I hope so. if it doesn't make it past phase III clinical trials, I won't blame it on any bullshit conspiracies though. LOL

in the meantime I walk two miles a day. hell yesterday I bumped it up to 2.5 miles. I've read it does you good even if you're overweight.

[Graceless]

When I read the words "obesity weapon", I imagined a lard-firing cannon.

But this is cool too. I guess.

[SilentFutility]

As a fat guy I can tell you losing weight is not easy.

skinny people seem to think we just set around shoving twinkies down our throats all day. when in truth two people can eat the same things and do the same amount of exercise and yet one gain weight and the other don't.

on top of that dealing with hunger is a bitch.

trying to lose weight is like trying to quit dope, only you need a little bit of a hit every day to stay alive, and you're surrounded by mountains of dope and everybody uses.


and if that ain't enough the body has all kinds of tricks up its sleeve to keep you fat.

you cut your diet down, and suddenly your body drops its metabolism while jacking up the hunger hormones because it thinks a famine has hit.

there's a reason like 97% of overweight people gain it back after 5 years.

so yeah I'm one of those dumb americans waiting on a pill.  

that's not to say I'm not doing stuff already like taking walks and trying to cut back, but still, they come out with a pill that works I'll be all over that shit.

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/fat- ... o-science/

That's the thing that a lot of people fail to recognise though...a healthy diet is not the same thing as not eating and going hungry all the time. You shouldn't be hungry, at all.

If you eat good food, complex carbs for energy and to stop you from being hungry, avoid sugars and eating only when you begin to get hungry and not at other times, and get lots of sleep (ie. be healthy and not eat crap) you will tend towards a healthy weight combined with an active lifestyle.

During a change to a healthy diet your body's metabolism shouldn't slow down it should speed up. If you eat smaller meals more regularly and eat complex carbs and fruits and stop eating as soon as you are not hungry, not whn you are stuffed full, your metabolism will be faster then if you eat huge meals and are inactive.

If you are provoking a "famine" response from your body you are not eating healthily.

Good luck.

[Mermaid]

I actually think it's very interesting to focus on the ecology of gut flora as it relates to body condition. They are lessons that will serve us, I suspect. Knowledge is power.

It's hard to curtail your food intake when you don't have that positive feedback. Knowing why, at least to me, would be empowering. There are so many crackpots like Dr. Oz out there, it's hard to glean what is fact from what is a sales pitch. I like this information.

[Mermaid]

When I read the words "obesity weapon", I imagined a lard-firing cannon.

But this is cool too. I guess.

Is it? It sounds too messy for my household, but hey, I don't judge.

[Agramon]

I actually think it's very interesting to focus on the ecology of gut flora as it relates to body condition. They are lessons that will serve us, I suspect. Knowledge is power.

It's hard to curtail your food intake when you don't have that positive feedback. Knowing why, at least to me, would be empowering. There are so many crackpots like Dr. Oz out there, it's hard to glean what is fact from what is a sales pitch. I like this information.

It seems weird to me that gut bacteria research - or at least its connection to overall health - is a (at least as far as I know) recent line of inquiry. Given the massive variety of microbes in our guts, one would have thought it would have been looked into earlier.

[hillbillyatheist]

As a fat guy I can tell you losing weight is not easy.

skinny people seem to think we just set around shoving twinkies down our throats all day. when in truth two people can eat the same things and do the same amount of exercise and yet one gain weight and the other don't.

on top of that dealing with hunger is a bitch.

trying to lose weight is like trying to quit dope, only you need a little bit of a hit every day to stay alive, and you're surrounded by mountains of dope and everybody uses.


and if that ain't enough the body has all kinds of tricks up its sleeve to keep you fat.

you cut your diet down, and suddenly your body drops its metabolism while jacking up the hunger hormones because it thinks a famine has hit.

there's a reason like 97% of overweight people gain it back after 5 years.

so yeah I'm one of those dumb americans waiting on a pill.  

that's not to say I'm not doing stuff already like taking walks and trying to cut back, but still, they come out with a pill that works I'll be all over that shit.

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/fat- ... o-science/

That's the thing that a lot of people fail to recognise though...a healthy diet is not the same thing as not eating and going hungry all the time. You shouldn't be hungry, at all.

If you eat good food, complex carbs for energy and to stop you from being hungry, avoid sugars and eating only when you begin to get hungry and not at other times, and get lots of sleep (ie. be healthy and not eat crap) you will tend towards a healthy weight combined with an active lifestyle.

During a change to a healthy diet your body's metabolism shouldn't slow down it should speed up. If you eat smaller meals more regularly and eat complex carbs and fruits and stop eating as soon as you are not hungry, not whn you are stuffed full, your metabolism will be faster then if you eat huge meals and are inactive.

If you are provoking a "famine" response from your body you are not eating healthily.

Good luck.

certainly no arguments about eating healthy food.
but that still doesn't change the fact that people can have biological reasons that make it easier or harder to achieve.

you can have two people start eating right, and exercising and one of them drops weight like they got cancer and the other gains weight, and has to work 3 times harder than the first one.

so you can have two people with similar willpower, but one fails because he has to work twice as hard as the first to achieve their goals.  So I think people should be sympathetic to this fact and not stereotype all fat people as gluttons eating twinkies till it comes out their ears.

but that said, certainly nobody should use this as an excuse to eat bad food and not exercise.

I'm morbidly obese right now, been most my life and and so far, I've been lucky, I don't have diabetes, high cholesterol or anything like that. I know folks in their teens with diabetes and shit.

why am I better off? my guess is because I walk every day. I can't drive. and walking does alot more than many people think. check this out.

[youtube:3o0fm8lx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInS6HIGo[/youtube:3o0fm8lx]