Antibiotics that reduce gut bacteria linked to obesity : LC Research/Media Forum : Active Low-Carber Forums

#1 ^

Tue, May-03-11, 02:48

Demi

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Antibiotics that reduce gut bacteria linked to obesity

Quote:

From the Independent
London,UK
May 3, 2011

Antibiotics that reduce gut bacteria linked to obesity

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

Scientists believe that the widespread use of antibiotics may be playing a significant role in exacerbating the obesity epidemic.

Growing evidence suggests that oral antibiotic medicines may be affecting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the human intestine which is influencing whether some people put on weight when they overeat or take too little exercise, they said.

The latest study, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, centres on a technique for counting the bacterial genes in the human intestine. It found that lean people are likely to have a more diverse community of gut flora compared to obese individuals.

Previous work has already established a difference in the gut bacteria of lean and overweight people, but the latest work is being seen as lending support to the controversial idea that bacteria-killing antibiotics may be playing a role in predisposing some people to being fat.

"It is a very real possibility," said Stanislav Dusko Ehrlich, a microbiologist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Jouy-en-Josas, who was part of the Meta-HIT consortium of pan-European scientists who carried out the work.

"What we have found is that bacterial communities in the gut appear to be different between lean and obese people. We can't be certain whether that perturbation is the cause, contribution or consequence of being overweight. But these bacteria are candidates for being a cause and that must be investigated," he said.

Previous studies on laboratory mice and farm animals have established a link between gut flora, the use of antibiotics and an increase in body fat, but scientists have been wary of extrapolating these findings to humans.

The study investigated the bacterial genes found in the gut flora of 177 Danish people, 55 of whom were lean, with the rest either overweight or obese. Scientists in the Meta-HIT consortium found that most people in the study carried in their intestines around 600,000 distinct bacterial genes. But about a third of the obese participants had only about 360,000 bacterial genes – about 30 or 40 per cent fewer – which suggests they possessed a distinctly poorer community of gut flora, which is typically composed of about 160 different species of microbial lifeforms.

Microbes that live inside us

* The healthy human gut contains 100 trillion microbial cells, 10 times as many as the human cells that comprise the body.
* About 1,000 species of microbe can live in the human gut, but at any one time a person typically has about 160.
* Members of the same family tend to have similar communities of gut bacteria.
* The two dominant groups of gutbacteria, the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes, help us to break down food.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ty-2278042.html

For anyone who might be interested, Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride is recognised as one of the world’s leading experts in treating learning disabilities, mental disorders, as well digestive and immune disorders, and has written about the effects of antibiotics on gut bacteria in her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Depression, Schizophrenia.

Check out her website, GAPS.ME, and also the lecture she gave at the Wise Traditions UK 2010 Conference, which also highlights the antibiotic/gut bacteria connection.

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#2 ^

Tue, May-03-11, 05:19

Hutchinson Hutchinson is offline

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The problem is to what extent we are consuming antibiotic resistant gut flora as well as creating our own anti biotic resistant strains?
Antibiotic resistance determinants in the interplay between food and gut microbiota.

Antimicrobial resistance in swine production

#3 ^

Thu, May-05-11, 06:46

girlgerms

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So is there anything you can do about it if you've had antibiotics other than eat yoghurt or yoghurt pills?

#4 ^

Thu, May-05-11, 07:06

Demi

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Quote:

Originally Posted by girlgerms

So is there anything you can do about it if you've had antibiotics other than eat yoghurt or yoghurt pills?

Yes, by taking effective therapeutic strength probiotics.

Suggest you might like to check out the Australian GAPS website: http://gapsaustralia.com.au/ for more info on them and where you can buy them.

#5 ^

Thu, May-05-11, 07:19

Hutchinson Hutchinson is offline

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Quote:

Originally Posted by girlgerms

So is there anything you can do about it if you've had antibiotics other than eat yoghurt or yoghurt pills?

Certainly eating live yoghurt, preferably home made with full fat milk will speed up the growth of lean type gut flora.
I think its worth inhibiting the growth of pathogenic gut flora like E Coli, Staph, H Pylori and so
I drink green tea.

Antibacterial effects of green tea polyphenols on clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

I have a meriva curcumin capsule
Curcumin inhibits FtsZ assembly: an attractive mechanism for its antibacterial activity
Resveratrol
Bactericidal effect of grape seed extract on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

5000iu vitamin d3
Vitamin D and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage

As each of these approaches are working by different means to inhibit Staphylococcus aureus they can all be deployed at the same time.

So keeping a high 25(OH)D (vitamin D level 60ng/ml ~70ng/ml) while also making GREEN TEA your main beverage of choice, and also taking curcumin and resveratrol should be more effective than just using one option at a time.

I've copied a post about MRSA here but the same applies to e coli.
I adopted this strategy to prevent UTI's (I have to self catheterize every time I pee so kept getting them and had to go on a long term antibiotic, then found the e coli had become antibiotic resistant so had to work out a better plan.)
So I've not had an antibiotic or UTI for 2 yrs now so it seems to be working.

Bear in mind some gut flora are slow growing and it usually take 6 months before the gut flora you had before an antibiotic are fully restored.

You may also want to consider Using Xylitol as a sweetener or in a toothpaste (iherb have both) as that can improve the pathogenic bacteria in the mouth and reduce the chance of them proliferating in the digestive system.

Do be aware that if you haven't been drinking Green Tea it does take a while for your digestive system to adapt and the initial reaction may well be to kill off a load of bacteria and that will make you feel nauseous for a week or so. So you do have to stick with it a bit. Follow Perfect Health diet tips for making proper green tea and don't let it brew too long especially at first.

I use Iherb because they offer cheapest shipping to UK. Code ~~~~~~ saves $5 initially however you may find cheaper shipping/cost elsewhere.

PS Just seen Demi's comment. I've frequently add a probiotic to my home made yoghurt culture so the strains of bacteria in the probiotic hopefully get multiplied while the yoghurt is fermenting. I don't regularly take probiotic as supplements. I think you'd need to take them for some while to enable them to establish.

Last edited by Hutchinson : Thu, May-05-11 at 07:30.