At the beginning, losing weight might be a daunting and depressing road. It’s easy to look at yourself and compare your body to that size-something-smaller-than-you, but something new is around the corner that just might help you.
Found in the guts of overweight mice.
Before you squirm or avert your eyes, the reality might be more useful than you think, especially if you are being considered for gastric band surgery – another daunting road for some.
Researchers in Havard University and Massachusetts General Hospital discovered a microbe in mice guts that altered when they were given gastric bypass surgery. When these microbes were put into sterile mice, the researchers were intrigued to find that the mice rapidly lost weight.
One of the senior authors of this study, Lee Kaplan said, “Our study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss and that finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects could become a valuable new tool to address obesity.”
For those that don’t know, a gastric band surgically shrinks the stomach to reduce the amount of food that is eaten in one sitting, which overall, should reduce the amount of weight. This method however, rearranged the insides of the mice, which overall, makes the data collected inconclusive; however, what the microbes inside the mice guts are doing is increasing the metabolism of the animal.
It should be noted that the mice were not overfed a high-calorie diet.
Naturally.
What does this mean for the future?
The aim now is to try to change the microbe so that it can be used for individuals that suffer from obesity. Whilst it won’t be a miracle cure, doctors are hoping that the microbe will become a brighter alternative to the dreaded gastric band; that whilst it originates from the same technology, doctors are hoping that there will always be the opportunity for choice.
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