Dirk Budka
dirk.budka@ntlworld.com
http://www.nutritionlondon.net/ http://www.bacteriaclinic.com/
http://www.ibsforum.co.uk/ http://www.virusmedicalclinic.com/
http://www.fungusandyeast.com/ http://www.parasiteclinic.com/
OBESITY AND BACTERIA
There are three main contributors to obesity:
1. Human genetics play a large part in determining body weight.
2. Reduction in physical activities and the availability of inexpensive, calorically dense food.
3. The balance/imbalance of the gut bacteria.
The first two have been discussed over and over again, but the balance of the gut flora is a more or less new aspect.
For the vast majority of people – including obese individuals –
caloric intake exceeds caloric expenditure by less than 1%. The body’s
ability to balance intake and expenditure is the result of the brain’s
ability to monitor the amount of fat in the body through changes in the
level of circulating hormones.
Two groups of beneficial bacteria are dominant in the human gut: the
Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes. In a research with obese patients,
Ley et al (published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science”) found out, that the proportion of Bacteroidetes is decreased
in obese people and that the obese gut has uncharacterised properties
that tip the balance toward the Firmicutes.
This finding show, that obesity has a microbial component. This
result has potential therapeutic implications and will change our views
of what causes obesity and how we depend on the bacteria that inhabit
our gut.
The treatment of obesity might depend on tests to analyse the patient’s gut flora.
The microbiota of obese people extracts more calories from food.
Result: The efficiency of caloric extraction from food may be
determined by the composition of the microbiota, which may contribute
to differential body weight.
More research will be necessary to address the ecological and evolutionary perspective on human-microbe mutualism and disease.
One conclusion can be already drawn from the latest finding:
Probiotics might be very important once a bacterial imbalance is
properly diagnosed, but… they probably have no place in prevention of bacterial imbalances.