The available studies on gut bacteria are mostly animal tests that cannot be accurately applied to humans. In fact, these may not be compatible between people, even though they are healthy for an individual.
An increasingly frequent and shared conclusion is one that defends that the intestinal flora or microbiota plays an important role for our health. This affects our metabolism and can be related to obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Other previous studies have shown that those affected by any of these diseases have a variable presence of different metabolites , that is, small molecules or metabolic residues, in the bloodstream . Therefore, the objective of the recent research at the University of Lund (Sweden) has been to analyze and identify which molecules in the blood are related to obesity and how they affect the intestinal flora, through stool samples.
To do this, they studied more than 600 samples of human feces and blood plasma (by sequencing the rRNA16S gene). They found 19 different metabolites that could be related to the person’s Body Mass Index. Of these, glutamate and the so-called BCAAs (branched-chain and aromatic amino acids) had the strongest connection to obesity .
Furthermore, these metabolites are related to 4 other different intestinal bacteria (L. blautia, L. dorea, L. ruminococcus and SHA-98 ). This suggests that these metabolites could be mediators between the gut microbiota and obesity, and points to possible future opportunities to target the gut microbiota in preventing obesity .
“Future studies should focus on how the composition of gut bacteria can be modified to reduce the risk of obesity and associated metabolic and cardiovascular diseases,” says Marju Orho-Melander , professor of genetic epidemiology at the Swedish university. He adds that “we must first understand what a normal healthy intestinal flora looks like, and what factors affect the bacterial composition. This requires large population studies, such as the Malmö offspring study, as well as intervention studies. “
Spain, in the top 3 of heavy countries
The latest study published by the WHO, in collaboration with Imperial College London, announced that Spain is among the main countries with overweight problems in its citizens . Specifically, it is the second classified in the world ranking after the United Kingdom. Approximately a quarter of the Spanish population suffers from obesity and there is an alarming growing trend.
These figures translate into an increase in heart attacks, liver disease, diabetes and cancers related to unhealthy and sedentary lifestyles.
In general indices, the Organization warns that 13% of the world’s adult population has problems of this type , which translates into almost 650 million people. Since 1975, obesity has nearly tripled worldwide and reached epidemic proportions worldwide, with at least 2.8 million people dying each year from obesity or being overweight.
Reference: Filip Ottosson Louise Brunkwall Ulrika Ericson Peter M Nilsson Peter Almgren Céline Fernandez Olle Melander and Marju Orho-Melander. Connection between BMI related plasma metabolite profile and gut microbiota. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (2018) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2017-02114
