Obese people, studies have shown, have less diverse microbiota than lean individuals. And the microbiota found in remote tribal peoples — who haven’t been exposed to antibiotics or processed foods — are far more diverse than those found among urbanites.
Khoruts said that while treating patients for Clostridium difficile, he has seen improvements in some who had been morbidly obese and diabetic, as well as those with anorexia nervosa. But those are just anecdotes.
Animal studies have given researchers reasons to be optimistic that a change in microbes will boost insulin sensitivity and decrease obesity, Khoruts said, and a Dutch study in 2012 suggested that it may be true for humans, as well.
“What we’re really trying to do is show this can work in people. It’s a proof of principle,” Seaquist said.
Fecal transplants for diabetes?
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Fecal transplants for diabetes?
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/he ... 27581.html
Gut bacteria researchers are interesting people. They love to cite such observations, apparently because they either believe that it actually means something, or they at least believe that it will somehow make their research conclusions more believable (based on the assumption that their target audience won't know any more about it than they do).Obese people, studies have shown, have less diverse microbiota than lean individuals. And the microbiota found in remote tribal peoples — who haven’t been exposed to antibiotics or processed foods — are far more diverse than those found among urbanites.
Unfortunately, in this case it doesn't mean much. Obese people have a less diverse microbiota because of their diet and their lifestyle (and probably genetics), not the other way around. Those gut bacteria changes came about through evolution (based on diet and lifestyle), not because the wrong bacteria suddenly snuck into someone's gut and took over (and wiped out all the "good" bacteria). Gut bacteria demographics that evolve from a high-carb diet are naturally going to be drastically different form the microbiota that evolves from a relatively low-carb diet.
And I'm sure it's true that those "tribal people" have a more diverse gut microbiota, but it's only true because their diet is vastly different from what we consider to be a modern "western" diet. It doesn't have as much to do with the fact that they haven't been exposed to antibiotics, as it does to the fact that their diet (and their lifestyle) is so drastically different from ours.
Remember that those tribes have no access to refrigerated storage for food, no way to can or otherwise preserve food (other than by drying), nor do they have any other way of controlling bacteria other than by the use of fire and herbs. So I would definitely expect them to have a more diverse bacteria population in their gut (plus various other parasites). But so what? Unless we plan to eat the way they do, comparing their gut flora and fauna with ours is the equivalent of comparing our life here on earth with life on some distant planet. Such life may be similar in many ways, but the devil is in the details.
Gut bacteria demographics evolve according to diet and lifestyle, and there is no way that the microbiota of people living ancient lifestyles would survive for long in the gut of someone living in a modern urban setting, eating a modern diet (even without antibiotics), despite the fact that many so-called "experts" continue to allude to this issue as if it were actually relevant.
The article is apparently about research designed to "reveal" how gut bacteria can prevent diabetes. Researchers are always searching for the "next big thing" in the form of a magic pill or some magic elixir to cure everyone's ills (and make the researchers rich and famous, of course). So it's only natural that researchers would hope that they can find a way to utilize gut bacteria to take the place of a magic pill. But until they actually learn enough about gut bacteria to have at least a basic working knowledge of the complex world of gut bacteria diversity, and how they all function together, I would be very surprised if they get anything worthwhile out of the millions of dollars that are being spent on this project. I applaud their efforts and their goals, and I hope I'm wrong, but I've heard it all before.
Thanks for the link.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I probably should have put a larger cut on the article, Tex. They did acknowledge that our diets are the probable cause of our changes in microbiota.
They may also explain how the modern American diet affects obesity.
Most of the microbes are found in the lower intestine, where they digest food that wasn’t broken down higher in the gastrointestinal track. But a high-calorie diet of fast food and highly processed and sweetened foods gets broken down earlier, leaving few leftovers for most of the microbes.