Weight loss surgery is one of the most common and successful treatments for patients who are suffering from long-term obesity. Surgery involves methods such as stapling or bypassing the stomach, and results are usually very quickly seen following the surgery.
A new study has revealed that the phenomenal effect that weight loss surgery has on wellness and long-term wellbeing may be, at least in part, to do with gut microbes, rather than the actual mechanics of the surgery.
Published in Science Translational Medicine, the new study examines gastric bypass, which is the most common type of surgical procedure used to treat obesity. During this process, the stomach is divided into two portions, making it much smaller. Not only does this reduce stomach size and make patients eat less, it also reduces the length of the intestinal tract through which the body can absorb calories. Results are often swift and impressive following gastric bypass surgery.
Now some are saying that changes in the microbiotics of the stomach could also be contributing to this weight loss success. It has been proved that patients pre and post operation have a distinctively different gut flora, with it being much healthier and more active in the post-operative set of results.
There is some discussion, however, as to whether this is as a direct result of the surgery itself, and helps to cause the weight loss, or whether it is the weight loss that in turn causes changes to the gut microbes.
Gastric bypasses were performed on mice, to observe their gut flora pre and post-surgery and to find out if it had any effect on weight loss. In some of the studies, mice were given ‘sham’ surgery where their gut was snipped but then stitched back together without rerouting it.
After the surgery, the researchers observed the faecal samples of the mice, and found that when the gastric bypass had been performed, the gut microbes of the mice changed significantly. Those who had had the sham surgery also had changes, but much smaller ones. Mice that were put on a diet showed some small changes too, but nowhere near the level of the gastric bypass mice.
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