Gut Bacteria Transplant Results in Weight Loss

This is quite an amazing story.  Thought that I would share it with you.

http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/gut-bacteria-transplant-results -in-weight-loss?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_ca mpaign=Feed%3A+bigthink%2Fmain+%28Big+Think+Main%29

I posted this same article a few days ego.  Do you know or do you have any research helping us figure out the foods that might be helpful to help the fat burning bacteria grow?  I am trying to find some research about this and would love any help.  Thank you for posting this, it really is fascinating to me. 

Sorry I missed your post.  Normally I catch them all.  I have a lot of bad things going on in my life and haven't been as vigilant in this forum.  

I will poke around to see what other information I can find.  I actually did just find this article which seems to be a little more in depth ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/27/us-obesity-surgery -bacteria-idUSBRE92Q0ZQ20130327

In that article I found this section that looks interesting ...

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"Another new study found that figuring out whether you have slimming microbiota or fattening ones might be as easy as breathing.

In a study published on Tuesday in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles report that people whose breath has high concentrations of both hydrogen and methane gases are more likely to have a higher body mass index and higher percentage of body fat.

Methane is associated with bacteria called Methanobrevibacter smithii, which in overabundance may cause weight gain by extracting calories from food super-efficiently, Cedars' Ruchi Mathur, who led the study, said: "It could allow a person to harvest more calories from their food."

The breath test could provide a warning that someone is at risk of obesity because he harbors fattening microbiota."

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With that excerpt it might not be foods we want to promote the fat burning bacteria but instead foods that eliminate the Methanobrevibacter smithii bacteria.  

I used to be a computer programmer so if I were to analyze this I would have the following thoughts ...

1) Is it a food promoting these bacteria or a food eliminating other bacteria.  With the elimination of other bacteria perhaps the beneficial bacteria is allowed to flourish.  

2) In a lot of ways our new diets are similar to an Atkins diet.  I wonder what they would find in the guts of a person on Atkins.  

3) Another thought I have is they mentioned that this is something in gastric bypass surgeries.  I wonder if this is also present in the vertical sleeve surgeries.  If not, then it has something to do with the rerouting of the intestines.  Maybe the high level of proteins getting digested further along in the system is what is allowing these bacteria to flourish.  I would like to see a study comparing the two surgeries and that could lead to more answers.  

4) Perhaps with the stomach being smaller there is lesser gastric juices digesting the food in the stomach.  Therefore a higher amount of undigested food leaves the stomach and is digested farther along.  Perhaps the food being digested farther along is allowing these bacteria to flourish.

5) Other than changing to a high protein low carb diet we are also taking multivitamins at probably twice the dose that most people do as well as calcium citrate.  I would bet most people adding calcium probably use the calcium carbonate as that is more readily available.  Additionally it could be that a lot of us are also trying to get rid of gassy situations and do so by increasing or decreasing fiber as well as adding in probiotics.  The other thing that is fairly unique to us is yogurt.  Most of us eat an increased amount of Greek yogurt or even regular yogurt which is adding in those wonderful yogurt bacteria.  Perhaps they are assisting the "fat burning" bacteria in growing.

These are just some thoughts off the top of my head.  It is hard to know if there is or are foods that are responsible or if it is the smaller size of the stomach or the alteration in our digestion.  I would think that they should make comparisons to an Atkins diet group as well as a Vertical Sleeve group.  If they are going to narrow this down I would suspect that many more studies and comparisons would have to be made.  

I am curious now to see if my surgeon has seen this study.  Perhaps I will shoot him an email and ask his thoughts on this and for your research you could contact your surgeon which I believe you do during your support group.  In addition for research purposes I could also fire off an email to my nutritionist.  

Although I would suspect that the surgeons and nutritionists would think along the lines of some of my thoughts above.  I would highly suspect that there are going to have to be more studies and comparisons with various groups to further determine information about these special bacteria and how come they are prevalent in the gastric bypass patient.

I found another article that has an interesting sentence http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/health/studies-focus-on-gu t-bacteria-in-weight-loss.html?_r=0

"The research also suggests that a popular weight-loss operation, gastric bypass, which shrinks the stomach and rearranges the intestines, seems to work in part by shifting the balance of bacteria in the digestive tract."

Another article I found on probiotic bacteria burning belly fat ... http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/probiot ic-bacteria-may-burn-belly-fat

After reading the following article http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-microbe -swap-helps-weight-loss I can come up with more points that were made (the first 2)  

1) The surgery effects our metabolism.  With a higher metabolism perhaps certain bacteria flourish and others don't.

2) Hormonal changes.  I think that I heard or read on here that as we burn fat we are releasing hormones and therefore experience higher levels of hormones which in turn may have something to do with the bacteria.

3) In hind site another comparison of these fat burning bacteria that needs to be made is men versus women.  I think that about 90% (give or take but the point is a huge majority) of the people having bariatric surgery are women.  

4) It really still might be our diet though.  A lot of our diets are also increased amounts of whey protein.  Perhaps this is beneficial to the bacteria.  Perhaps carbonation (which is adding carbon dioxide into our bodies) being eliminated from our diets is the answer.  In many ways our diet or rather fairly specialized diet in combination with omitting certain items allows this growth.

Finally perhaps it is a weird combination of all of these things that we do be eliminating a lot of things and adding a lot of things diet wise as well as vitamin and calcium and other supplements that we are now taking that is the answer.

I find that as I think about this and as I am typing it you have my mind going a million miles an hour (so to speak).  I find that as I am in the process of typing one sentence a whole new idea or thought pops up and then I have another sentence or two to type.  That is the problem with being a fast typist as well as being scientifically minded.  So many things occur to me fairly quickly.  

Sorry for the long response.  You really got me thinking today.  

Thank you for your thoughtful response.  I too am pondering the possibilities here and intend to keep on top of the research.  I have already sent an email to my surgeon asking for his thoughts on the article but have not heard back yet.  He might take a few days to respond, but I am certain he will have quite a bit to say on the topic.  I will share what I learn with you as soon as I get more.  This is quite fascinating to me and I think might explain why some people can eat almost anything and not gain and others just look at food and plump up.  

Many many stories these days about the relationship of gut bacteria to obesity, although everything is in the early research stages.  Google "gut bacteria causes obesity" for an interesting list.  One of the links in the result was a Time Magazine article from May 2010!

I have long suspected that there's something there, especially in the triggering effect of refined carbs - I wonder if these foods create a big population of the type of gut bacteria that flourish on them, and in turn, the bacteria somehow create a craving in the "host" for more of the same.

While you were writing your reply I was thinking a lot about this as per Elina's reply.  I came up with a really long reply (see above) with a ton of thoughts on what is going on.

It all comes down to your initial statement of being in the early stages.  There really needs to be a lot more comparative studies before they can come up with the hows and whys.  The studies have to be performed and repeated by others with the same results to narrow down the main cause and effect of these bacteria.  

 

I would like to keep this discussion open.  I found this article.  I don't think we need transplants and many who are already eating a healthy diet probably have the right bacteria in their gut already.  Seems that naturally fermented foods are key.  I personally don't think pro biotic supplements do much.  I think the live bacteria in foods is what is needed.  Seems like sugar and refined carbs are the bad guys, of course and healthy eating of fibrous foods, especially raw ones are the good guys.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/10/Dietitian-Says-Eating-Right-Is-Best-Way-to-Optimize-Good-Gut-Bacteria.aspx