http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6025/32.full Girth and the Gut (Bacteria)
Mouse and human studies are beginning to clarify the role gut bacteria play in obesity.
Elizabeth Pennisi
Science 1 April 2011:
Vol. 332 no. 6025 pp. 32-33
DOI: 10.1126/science.332.6025.32
Five years ago, a team headed by Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) in Missouri made a surprising discovery: The guts of obese mice and people harbor an array of microbes different from that of their lean counterparts. More provocatively, when they gave lean mice certain gut-dwelling microbes, the rodents became fat (Science, 29 May 2009, p. 1136). The findings sparked headlines and fueled popular speculation that manipulating gut bacteria might keep weight down in people.
Already, Martin Blaser had been heading down a similar track. Blaser, a microbiologist at New York University in New York City, was struck by how successful farmers are at increasing the growth rates of livestock by adding low doses of antibiotics to their feed. “The earlier in life they start the antibiotic, the more profound the effect,” he points out. He began to wonder whether antibiotic use, particularly in children, might affect the long-term establishment of a balanced microbial community in the human gut, eliminating bacteria there that could help ward off obesity.
A raft of intriguing obesity-related findings was presented at a meeting last month on the microbiome, the bacteria that live inside the guts and other tissues of animals. Yet many in the field caution that it remains difficult to determine whether changes in gut microbes drive or contribute to obesity or whether the excess weight itself triggers those changes. “The jury is still out [about] what the role of the gut microbiota may be in obesity in humans,” says Claire Fraser-Liggett, a microbiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore who has studied gut bacteria and obesity in the Amish.
What does this mean for us? Obviously, we don't consume low doses of antibiotics every day, but we eat meat from animals that has been treated this way and the jury is still out on the full implications of this effect in us. The imbalance of gut flora has been implicated in a host of other conditions as well, especially including auto-immune diseases.
What to do? Buy meat of animals that are raised organically if you are concerned about the effects. Take antibiotics only if absolutely necessary - they will not treat viral or fungal infections, and make sure to replenish your gut with healthy probiotic bacteria, like that found in yogurt and cheeses.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/why-bu ... meat.html#
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Geez, Sci chi you have a knack of posting extremely timely issues. The issue of bacterial flora in your g.i.tract is of paramount importance in your health. As for me, the jury is in: eating standard livestock is akin to putting low level antibiotics and pesticide residues in your body.
Period. My humble suggestion is to eat grass fed, not corn fattened up cow, pork, lamb, etc. Even better, know your food producer, an ancient and time tested way to insure the quality of your food.
BTW, a G.I. panel I routinely do with clients, measures something called the "adiposity index" an indicator of the kind of bugs in your g.i.tract
that promote obesity.
The problem is that once the beneficial flora have been wiped out how do you repopulate with the correct balance? Are fecal transplants the weight loss craze of the future?
More provocatively, when they gave lean mice certain gut-dwelling microbes, the rodents became fat (Science, 29 May 2009, p. 1136).
This is why scientists also need engineers around - to straighten out their backwards thinking. I once sat at a meeting full of PHD scientists who were trying to figure out why their cleaning procedures were not affective and didn't meet spec.
If they couldn't get the process clean- it would cost the company a few million dollars to replace the equipment because the FDA would not certify the equipment for an alternate use. After they explained the process to me- I immediately saw what they were doing wrong. I waited a week to tell them what it was - they were cleaning everything OK - but their testing procedure was flawed.
Anyway- when they gave lean mice certain gut-dwelling microbes, the rodents became fat. The real question here is just the opposite- when they give the fat mice the lean gut-dwelling microbes- do they get thin?
Huge question!! I think that there are different combinations of bacteria that vary in their benefit for the individual. But, there is so many bacterial strains that just need to be there, that I think it is important to start adding a good probiotic as soon as stopping or even while
on antibiotics. In addition, fermented foods have been the mainstay of reinoculation of the g.i.tract for centuries. Sauerkraut, kimchee, kombucha, fresh not pasteurized yogurt, etc.
The big thing is to clear infections and then rebuild the gi tract. Probiotics is one part.
I tend to agree although I have seen Phd's in many walks of life that seem to suffer illogical thinking. Scientists need engineers and vice versa.
I think mandatory education for everyone should be in a class called " Critical Thinking".
Anyway, good suggestion about fat mice being given "thin" bacteria to see effect. I suspect it would not be as straightforward as we might expect. Weight gain and loss have more to do with a spectrum of other issues as well. Teasing out the bacterial flora aspect of weight loss
is nice but certainly not conclusive or comprehensive.
Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore led by Sven Pettersson recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that normal gut flora, the bacteria that inhabit our intestines, have a significant impact on brain development and subsequent adult behavior.
We human beings may think of ourselves as a highly evolved species of conscious individuals, but we are all far less human than most of us appreciate. Scientists have long recognized that the bacterial cells inhabiting our skin and gut outnumber human cells by ten-to-one. Indeed, Princeton University scientist Bonnie Bassler compared the approximately 30,000 human genes found in the average human to the more than 3 million bacterial genes inhabiting us, concluding that we are at most one percent human. We are only beginning to understand the sort of impact our bacterial passengers have on our daily lives.
this new study is the first to extensively evaluate the influence of gut bacteria on the biochemistry and development of the brain.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Once again, I see you posting stuff that is extremely relevant. The latest lecture I have attended was called "the brain-gut axis and clinical applications" Basically seeing the same thing that there is a 2 lane highway from the gut to the brain and vice versa.
This is so overlooked in modern medicine.
Here is a direct quote from a study from the lecture.
"the results show that intestinal mucosal dysfunction(leaky gut) play a role in the inflamatory patho-physiology of depression "
"it is suggested that patients with major depression should be checked for leaky gut....."
And this is only one aspect of brain function!
After this lecture I went back to the office to see some more patients. The first one I saw had 2 traumatic brain injuries and had developed among other things, irritable bowl syndrome. The VA had blown him off saying he was in Iraq and picked up a bug. No testing, no treatment, no nothing. That made me angry. Is this how veterans are really treated?
I showed him a direct quote from this lecture: " Traumatic Brain Injury causes gastro-intestinal dysfunction and increased intestinal permeability" Trauma: 2010 May;68(5) 1059-1064
He was relieved that a mechanism existed for his symptoms.
