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Weight May Be Linked to Type of Bacteria
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
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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.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
>
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.
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