Change Your Microbes and Change Your Weight

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/health/studies-focus-on-gut-bacteria-in-weight-loss.html?ref=digestivetract

The article “Bacteria in the Intestines May Help Tip the Bathroom Scale, Studies Show” written by Denise Grady on March 27, 2013 from the New York Times, talks about new research that has revealed that bacteria in your gut helps to determine whether you gain or lose weight.

Gastric bypass surgery is a very common weight loss surgery, however scientists have not fully understood why this surgery works until now. New studies show that this surgery works mainly because the microbe levels, or bacteria in your intestines, are altered when you have this surgery.

Gastric bypass surgery is a surgery to make your stomach smaller. Your stomach is divided into a small upper section and a larger bottom section. The top section of your stomach is where your food will now go, and it holds only about 1 ounce of food. A small part of your jejunum is then connected to a small hole in your new, smaller stomach. The food you eat will now travel from the stomach into this new opening into your small intestine. The duodenum and a small part of the jejunum are now bypassed, or skipped, so there is less absorption of calories.

 

However, besides less absorption of calories, another major reason why this bypass surgery works is the change in microbe levels, or microbiota, which account for a reasonable percentage of a person’s weight loss after this surgery. Usually after this surgery, patients lose about 65% to 75% of their excess weight, and 20% of that weight loss has been found is due to the microbiota in your intestines.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital including Dr. Lee M. Kaplan, director of the obesity, metabolism and nutrition institute, say that this new information could gradually lead to treatment that could alter the microbiota in the intestines to help people lose weight without having the bypass surgery. But for now, the gastric bypass surgery is the most effective weight loss procedure.  Dr. Kaplan says, “In no way is manipulating the microbiota going to mimic all the myriad effects of gastric bypass. But if this could produce 20 percent of the effects of surgery, it will still be valuable.” He means that the bypass surgery has other beneficial results that don’t have to do with the microbiota so the surgery is still the best way to lose weight, however if they could come up with a treatment to lose 20% of the effects, it would still be worth it.

The exact way that the intestinal microbiota can cause weight loss is still being researched. Scientists do know that people who tend to gain more weight have certain microbes to make them gain weight that trim people might not have.

A study in which scientists took the breath tests of 792 patients to figure out what microbes they had in their intestines, revealed that the microbe Methanobrevibacter smithii is present in these people who tend to gain weight. It is most likely partially responsible for their obesity because this microbe is designed to absorb as many calories as possible from food. Thousands of years ago, humans might have needed this microbe when they needed every calorie they could get out of their food because they didn’t know when their next meal would be, but with a modern day diet, these microbes are not needed. It is believed that other microbes might be similar to this microbe and might be somewhat responsible for a person’s obesity, so by changing or removing these microbes, it could help a person lose weight.

This article relates to our biology class because we have talked about bypass surgeries. When we were on our Circulatory System unit, we talked about coronary bypass surgery. This surgery occurs when a coronary artery is clogged, and oxygen-rich blood can’t get to your heart’s muscles to keep it pumping. So, you need to have a bypass surgery which takes a vein from your leg to go around, or skip, the blocked coronary artery. The gastric bypass surgery is just like this surgery, but instead, it is going around, or skipping, the duodenum.

It also relates to our class because we have talked about the bacteria that is in our intestines when we read “The Bacteria inside My Gut” by George Liles during the digestive system unit. We read about how once your food reached your intestines, there are more than 5,000 species of microbes that live there. They contain enzymes that are needed to break down foods that our bodies can’t digest. They then convert the nutrients to energy, and create gaseous waste as a byproduct of this process.

I think these new findings could be very beneficial because scientists might be able to find a treatment to help a person lose weight without having to have a surgery. A medicine that could change the microbe levels in your body would help you avoid the money, effort, pain, and recovery time of a bypass surgery. This new information could be a crucial step in understanding weight gain and weight loss.

Picture citation: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/19268.htm