Monday, November 21, 2016

Further Confirmation of Relationship of Gut Bacteria to Obesity

The variety of gut bacteria inside us has a significant bearing on how much we gain weight and it seems this has been known for some while but this study was run to further study the matter and the results were consistent.  (Science Daily:  Gut bacteria affect our metabolism)

Mice that receive gut bacteria transplants from overweight humans are known to gain more weight than mice transplanted with gut bacteria from normal weight subjects, even when the mice are fed the same diet.  A study from the National Food Institute confirms this finding while seeking new perspectives on the reasons behind this link.

- Science Daily

It seems pointless to use human bacteria in a mouse but the researchers discuss that to say not all bacteria from a human will do well in the mouse gut but the experiment affords the opportunity to study those which do and what effect they have.

"The larger number of human 'bacteria donors' in our study has given us a unique opportunity to follow which of the human-derived bacteria that generally colonize the mouse gut, and which don't.  This provides important insights for future research," Tine Rask Licht explains.

- Science Daily

The result of the experiment confirms transplantation of human gut bacteria from an overweight person means the mouse receiving it will gain more weight than other mice even when all eat the same thing and presumably the same amount of it.


Obviously it's easy to be the wise guy here, shooting off my yap on Ithaka, but doesn't it seem the logical thing is to take gut bacteria from skinny humans and transplant some into overweight humans to help them lose weight.

In fact, that makes my gut bacteria a hot commodity.  I've been skinny all my life and even the Army didn't change that much although I did get some idiotic aviator sunglasses out of it.


Let's see, we need the Silas Institute for Weight-Reducing Bacterial Transplantation.  Of course I'll give myself a PhD to run it because, well, that's how they do it on YouTube.

Oh, God.  This takes me back to when I was young and being raised by the Inuit tribe in the Northwest where they taught me the ancient ways and gave me my name, Silas X. Caribou.  They said the Great Spirit will tell you where to go and he said 'the future is in gut bacteria.'

From that day forward, I caught many fish and I saved and I saved until finally I could send myself to university and learn the complexities of gut bacteria so I could come here today to help you with your weight reduction.

In a way, you could say the Great Spirit sent me to you.

Ed:  in a way, you could say that was total bullshit too!

Well, sure, there is that but did Doctor Oz ever actually attend a school?

I'm tellin' you, mate.  It doesn't make any difference.  I could make millions.  Think anti-vaxx as that's all based on a quack in England who was so bad he was thrown out of the medical society.  People are still making money on that and there was even an outbreak of mumps in Oklahoma within the last few days.  Call yourself a doctor and people will believe it.

Ed:  so you will be Doctor Caribou?

Sure, that name has pizzazz!  Maybe I could give myself a Nobel Prize in something no-one will ever research.

Ed:  a Nobel Prize may be a bit much

Perhaps so.

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