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Scientists link obesity to gut bacteria
ft.com ^ | Tuesday, December 18, 2012 | Pippa Stephens in London

Posted on 12/19/2012 5:45:56 AM PST by upchuck

Edited on 12/19/2012 5:48:00 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

Obesity in human beings could be caused by bacterial infection rather than eating too much, exercising too little or genetics, according to a groundbreaking study that could have profound implications for public health systems, the pharmaceutical industry and food manufacturers.


(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS:
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To: Dead Corpse

You are not a horse or cow. Humans don’t use bacterial processes to break down food.

Ruminants have special stomachs, and the bacteria generally breakdown cellulose. Humans have a single chamber stomach, and cannot digest cellulose (even fat people).


21 posted on 12/19/2012 7:00:26 AM PST by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Dead Corpse

The bacteria normally found in the gut are very beneficial to many bodily functions including immune response.


22 posted on 12/19/2012 7:13:06 AM PST by csmusaret (I will give Obama credit for one thing- he is living proof that familiarity breeds contempt.)
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To: upchuck

Link to article:

http://www.usaprepares.com/health/scientists-link-obesity-to-gut-bacteria


23 posted on 12/19/2012 7:13:25 AM PST by D. S. Mayfield
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To: upchuck

So, how do you get rid of the bad bacteria?


24 posted on 12/19/2012 7:14:14 AM PST by bgill (We've passed the point of no return. Welcome to Al Amerika.)
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To: csmusaret

Could just be Candida.


25 posted on 12/19/2012 7:15:18 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (You cant bring something to its knees that refuses to stand on its own)
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To: csmusaret

Could just be Candida.


26 posted on 12/19/2012 7:15:28 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (You can't bring something to its knees that refuses to stand on its own)
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To: Triple

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/2012/09/12/the-food-fight-in-your-guts-why-bacteria-will-change-the-way-you-think-about-calories/


27 posted on 12/19/2012 7:18:40 AM PST by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

You may already know this, but Candida is a fungus, not a bacterium.


28 posted on 12/19/2012 7:18:40 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: csmusaret
Most are. Agreed.

Like I said, killing off certain types of gut bacteria may have an affect on total calories absorbed based off my anecdotal recent evidence and as posited by the above linked to news article... but probably isn't a healthy thing to do in the long run.

29 posted on 12/19/2012 7:21:32 AM PST by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
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To: Sherman Logan

“You may already know this, but Candida is a fungus, not a bacterium.”

I know. My guess is as good as theirs. And I didn’t spend 1/4 million of Daddy’s money to learn that in college.


30 posted on 12/19/2012 7:26:43 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (You can't bring something to its knees that refuses to stand on its own)
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To: upchuck

I’m no rocket scientist, but I have discovered that consuming more calories than I burn makes me fat.


31 posted on 12/19/2012 7:39:46 AM PST by BO Stinkss
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To: TomGuy
One of the treatments for stomach ulcers is high doses of the bismuth in products like Pepto Bismol.

Peptobismol only makes helicobacter pylorii vulnerable. It takes amoxycillin antibiotic coadministered to kill them. Either medicine alone will not due the trick.

(Don't know what the effective dosage is. It's if/when I've had to take amoxycillin to conquer an abcessed tooth that I always take some Peptobismol at the same time, a course of treatment of about 2 weeks, just in case. It is helpful to know that the sulfonophane in broccoli also can eradicate the h. pylori, which can caise gastritis and stomach cancer.)

32 posted on 12/19/2012 7:41:59 AM PST by imardmd1
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

Well, if anti-biotics will cure it, it shouldn’t take long for them to prove it.


33 posted on 12/19/2012 8:09:40 AM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: Dead Corpse

Five pounds is not much, it could all be due to water retention or something like that. Your body weight fluctuates by a few pounds just due to variations in your diet, activity, the season, etc. However, the obesity epidemic in America isn’t about people who are five pounds, or ten, or even fifteen pounds overweight. I see, every single day, multiple people who are 30, 40, 50 pounds or more overweight. To think bacteria are the cause of that gross obesity just defies common sense. Why wouldn’t every country on the planet have the same problem if that were true?


34 posted on 12/19/2012 8:10:29 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: Dead Corpse

I would like to see a human study.

I am sticking with the idea/hypothesis that in humans weight is a function of caloric intake and exercise/activity. The bacterial effect on nutrient/calorie absorption having such a minor effect that it constitutes a rounding error.

Science is all about testing hypotheses, and this one looks prime to test.

Thanks for the link.


35 posted on 12/19/2012 8:18:55 AM PST by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Admin Moderator; Aria; sarasota

I’m not sure what’s going on with this article on ft.com. I found the link to the article on Drudge. I followed the link and had no problem. I do not have a subscription to ft.com. I just followed the link again and, again, had no problem. Maybe ft.com just likes me? :)


36 posted on 12/19/2012 8:22:44 AM PST by upchuck (America's at an awkward stage. Too late to work within the system, too early to shoot the bastards.)
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To: Triple
Science is all about testing hypotheses, and this one looks prime to test.

Agreed. You can have smoke without fire, but it is always a good thing to check. ;-)

37 posted on 12/19/2012 8:23:28 AM PST by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
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To: upchuck

bump for later


38 posted on 12/19/2012 8:24:19 AM PST by Ditter
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To: upchuck

I can see this being right. One use of antibiotics for livestock is to fatten them up.

Antibiotics as Growth Promotants: Mode of Action
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1081/ABIO-120005768

Microbial shifts in the swine distal gut in response to the treatment with antimicrobial growth promoter, tylosin.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22955886
“Antimicrobials have been used extensively as growth promoters (AGPs) in agricultural animal production. However, the specific mechanism of action for AGPs has not yet been determined. The work presented here was to determine and characterize the microbiome of pigs receiving one AGP, tylosin, compared with untreated pigs. We hypothesized that AGPs exerted their growth promoting effect by altering gut microbial population composition.”

Antibiotics in early life alter the murine colonic microbiome and adiposity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22914093
“Antibiotics administered in low doses have been widely used as growth promoters in the agricultural industry since the 1950s, yet the mechanisms for this effect are unclear. Because antimicrobial agents of different classes and varying activity are effective across several vertebrate species, we proposed that such subtherapeutic administration alters the population structure of the gut microbiome as well as its metabolic capabilities. We generated a model of adiposity by giving subtherapeutic antibiotic therapy to young mice and evaluated changes in the composition and capabilities of the gut microbiome. Administration of subtherapeutic antibiotic therapy increased adiposity in young mice and increased hormone levels related to metabolism. We observed substantial taxonomic changes in the microbiome, changes in copies of key genes involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates to short-chain fatty acids, increases in colonic short-chain fatty acid levels, and alterations in the regulation of hepatic metabolism of lipids and cholesterol. In this model, we demonstrate the alteration of early-life murine metabolic homeostasis through antibiotic manipulation.”

Effect of antibiotic growth promoters on broiler performance, intestinal growth parameters, and quantitative morphology.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16553279

And there are more. Antibiotics have been livestock growth promoters for years. I imagine they have a similar effect on people by altering the intestine and flora.


39 posted on 12/19/2012 5:48:04 PM PST by Suz in AZ
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To: Suz in AZ
Antibiotics have been livestock growth promoters for years. I imagine they have a similar effect on people by altering the intestine and flora.

Thanks for all that info. Very interesting. My question: Once my gut gets all screwed up, how do I put it back? :)

40 posted on 12/19/2012 6:56:30 PM PST by upchuck (America's at an awkward stage. Too late to work within the system, too early to shoot the bastards.)
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