March 5th, 2010
Did you know that germs may be making people fat?
Reports Reuters:
Germs that make their home in the gut may help cause obesity and a range of health-threatening symptoms that go along with it, researchers reported on Thursday.
It could be that certain bacteria cause inflammation that can affect appetite as well as inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn’s disease and colitis, the researchers reported in the journal Science.
In other words, the germs make you overeat, Andrew Gewirtz of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues reported.
“Previous research has suggested that bacteria can influence how well energy is absorbed from food, but these findings demonstrate that intestinal bacteria can actually influence appetite,” Gewirtz said.
“The obesity epidemic is driven by people eating too much, but why are people eating more?”
Gewirtz said the research suggests that bacteria may play a role — perhaps a population of bacteria that thrive because other, competing organisms have been wiped out by antibiotics, access to clean water and other factors of modern life.
His team stumbled on the findings by accident.
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