US research sheds new light on the role that bacteria in the digestive tract can play in obesity. The studies, which were presented at the recent general meeting of the American Society of Microbiology, show a picture that may be more complex than initially thought. Current experiments suggest that an interaction between genetic factors and the composition of bacteria living in the human intestine may predispose some individuals to obesity.
These results potentially deepen the knowledge of the mechanisms through which genetics can predispose some people to obesity. They could also help pave the way towards a future where genetic screening, combined with tailored treatments, could help people at risk of obesity maintain a healthy weight . A researcher at the Institute of Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Margaret Zupancic analyzed the intestinal bacterial flora of lean and obese individuals belonging to the old Amish order of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a relatively homogeneous population with similarities both for genetics and lifestyle. Initially they did not find any correlation between the composition of intestinal bacteria and obesity, but when taken into account in the genetic heritage of the participants, some models began to emerge. One model was a statistically significant correlation between a variant of the FTO gene (a gene associated with obesity) of the patient and the presence of some groups of bacteria in the digestive tract.
Another study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center analyzed the intestinal microbes of women between 40 and 45 years of age. The researchers found a positive correlation between the population of a specific type of bacteria, Bacteroidetes, and the percentage of body fat in the participants. The researchers also found that in people with certain genetic variants in the taste receptor genes, a low level of bacterial diversity in the gut was correlated with a greater probability of obesity, while a high level of diversity was correlated with a lower risk. In Singapore, instead, the American researcher Jeffrey I. Gordon, Director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology of the Washington University School of Medicine, received the International Prize for Nutrition for its exceptional discoveries on the relationship of mutual benefit that exists between the human body and the tens of trillions of bacteria that live in our intestines, known today as intestinal microbiota. The goal of the researchers is to better understand how, starting from birth, the relationship of mutual benefit between our intestinal microbes and ourselves is created and improved.
The aim of these studies is to promote healthy growth in children, in addition to identifying microbiome-based strategies to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases linked to poor nutritional status at various stages of life. Gordon explains: "Our intestinal microbiome first of all provides us with a number of genes that far exceeds the number of genes present in our human cells. This our repertoire of intestinal microbial genes also provides us with the physiological functions that our intestinal cells would not have known to perform: for example, the ability to metabolize certain carbohydrates that our intestines are unable to digest ". "
The contribution of Gordon to the advancement of knowledge is above all in having intuited (and in part demonstrated) how the composition of the intestinal microbiota (ie the type of bacteria we have in the intestine) may have a role "in extracting" more or less calories from the food we eat. In other words, with the same number of calories introduced there would be a different calorie storage depending on the bacteria that make up the microbiota itself. This is an unexpected and central role in attempts to combat the "epidemic" of obesity that afflicts Western countries and beyond.
These scientific results could explain why it has long been known that hydrocolontherapy is an easy and natural technique that often leads to rapid loss of body weight, rapid decrease in abdominal swelling and extraordinary cutaneous anti-aging effect, especially if accompanied by adequate power correction.
Dr. Patrick Hermes Barbon
