06 Apr How Do Your Gut Bugs Influence Your Weight?
The number of bacteria in your gut, as well as the diversity of said bacteria, could be tied to your weight, according to a recent study.
A team of researchers from around the world found that people who are obese have fewer and less diverse gut bacteria than their leaner counterparts.
“We also see that if you belong to the group with less intestinal bacteria and have already developed obesity, you will also gain more weight over a number of years,” study researcher Oluf Pederson, professor and scientific director at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, said in a statement.
Researchers noted that the gut bacteria makeup of people who are obese may be provoking mild inflammation, which could thereby raise the risk of chronic health conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
A study published in the journal Nature, looked at the genetic mapping of intestinal bacteria from 292 Danes revealing that about one in four people has 40 percent less gut bacteria than average, as well as a lower-than-average diversity of bacteria. “Even lean people who are poor in bacterial species have a higher risk of developing these pathologies,” according to S. Dusko Ehrlich, one of the researchers.
In another study also published in the same issue of Nature, French researchers found that overweight and obese people may be able to boost their gut bacteria numbers and diversity by changing their diets.
Further interesting research shows that even bacteria we associate with disease may be of benefit. Helicobactor pylori is a bacteria that lives in the stomach and is associated with peptic ulcers. Antibiotics that target H. pylori reduce ulcers, but are associated with weight gain. It turns out that H. pylori is considered part of the normal bacterial lining of the stomach and it helps to regulate, ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite. People who take antibiotics for H. pylori have higher levels ghrelin, and therefore are programmed to eat more and gain weight. Years ago, sixty percent of the populations carried H. pylori. Now only six percent of children have it, due to the widespread use of antibiotics for common infections. Could this factor play a role in the epidemic of obesity in our society?
“It’s very possible to make a brew that is the collection of the [richly diverse bacterial] population, put that into a probiotic pill and give that to people who have the poor population and see if the good ones can take over and actually transmit the healthy state.” – Microbiologist Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute in California
What can an individual do to maintain or enhance their microbiome to ensure optimal health? Firstly, one can take steps to optimize health and therefore reduce the need for medication. There are ways to re-establish the healthy microbiome in the body, Naturopathic physicians have been addressing this issue head on for decades and have successful protocols for enhancing their patients’ microbiome. Taking a good quality probiotics supplement and eating probiotic containing foods while reducing the overgrowth of opportunistic harmful bacteria and yeasts through supervised programs is very beneficial to overall healthy weight, energy and immunity.
Sources:
- Curr. Issues Intest. Microbiol. (2003) 4: 1-8, Studies on Colonization Resistance of the Human Gut Microbiota to Candida albicans and the Effects of Tetracycline and Labtobacillus
- Nature. (2013) 500:541-545, Richness of Human Gut Microbiome Correlates with Metabolic Markers.
- Nature. (2013) 500:585-588. Dietary Intervention on Gut Microbiomal Gene Richness.
- Diverse Gut Microbes, A Trim Waistline and Health Go Together. NPR Aug 28, 2013. Podcast. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/08/28/216081342/diverse-gut-microbes-a-trim-waistline-and-health-go-together