Antibiotics Might Be Fueling Obesity Epidemic

[n2doc]

By Brandon Keim

Expanding waistlines may be caused by more than bad diets and sedentary habits. Antibiotics could be disrupting our gut bacteria, helping people pack on fat like farm animals.

This scenario is, for now, a hypothesis, but one that’s fleshed out convincingly in two new studies. In the first, mice given antibiotics experienced profound changes to internal microbe communities that process food and regulate metabolism. In the other study, body weight in children rose with antibiotic exposures as infants.

“Early life antibiotics are changing the microbiome, and its metabolic capabilities, at a critical time in development,” said microbiologist Martin Blaser of New York University. “These changes have downstream effects on metabolism, including genes related to energy storage.”


Blaser was among the first researchers to investigate what’s become one of the hottest areas in biology: the microbiome, or the vast community of bacteria, viruses and even fungi that live inside our bodies, breaking down food and regulating physiological processes.

'Our microbiome is part of human physiology. We are doing things to change it, and those changes have consequences.'

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http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/antibiotics-obesity/

[rfranklin]

1. I didn't know that they were high calorie!

I thought it was all those beers I was drinking that caused the expansion of my gut.

[BOG PERSON]

4. exactly

alcohol is sterilizing your insides, eliminating the beneficial microbe communities that help break down the food you later eat to soak up that alcohol. i am a scientist, so i know what i'm talking about

[itsrobert]

2. Nope, it's just eating too much and not exercising.

Put down the donuts and get on the treadmill, I tell myself.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. " Will not harm " has been replaced with ' Pharm Charm '

Ever see a Pharmaceutical rep that wasn't drop dead gorgeous ? Superficially allaying ailments and flaws are killing us.

[tridim]

5. They might want to study me.

I've only taken one round of antibiotics in 40 years and I've always been thin no matter what I eat.

[DevonRex]

6. I'm a poster child for this.

When I finally got diagnosed and treated for an underlying condition I was able to stay off antibiotics for long periods of time. I avoid going to the doctor like the plague these days. And now I'm thin.

Or it could be that doctors cause obesity. Just kidding. I wouldn't have lived much longer without a very good one who figured out what I had.

We eat natural foods including organic meats, so no antibiotics in that either. Wish I could say that about the water supply.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. It's lots of things, but primary cause is people eating too much high calorie food (exceptions)

There are a few exceptions, since there have always been grossly overweight or obese people, but only a few percent, not like 30 to 50 % that is pandemic now.

When overweight people are put on strict diets of what they claim to eat, they lose weight.

The fundamental fact about overweight conditions and obesity is that it takes years to gain the poundage and it will take years to get it off. Over-eating is a habit and the psychology takes time to change and the body takes time to de-habituate and the switch over to real tasting and real nutrition and real fiber takes education and time.

Things like the microbial ecology of the gut are important but not fundamental. However, "leaky gut" syndrome is also or mostly created or exacerbated by the type of the nutrients that are eaten and not eaten.

Note: meat and in particular red meat is laced with anti-biotics, but also with nutrients like fat that ferment in the gut leading to leaky gut syndrome.

In any case, there is no overnight cure.

Overweight people deserve support and help if they wish to fix their problem (it is a problem, not just their problem but their children's problem, their employer's problem and their society's problem). They need help to change and support to ease the difficult transition and hope for life afterwards.

The good news is that people can change when they want to and when they take the time to make the fundamental deep down changes necessary. With help and support they can do it.