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A new study from researchers at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) in Japan reports the discovery of an order of gut bacteria that may help protect against type 2 diabetes and obesity by improving insulin resistance.
Exposure to air pollution alters gut microbiome composition, subsequently increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses.
A small study found that a particular bacterium positively changed metabolic markers in “obese and overweight human volunteers”.
Studies have found that a diet high in fat, a common risk factor of obesity, can trigger widespread disruptions to the microbial environment, or microbiota, in test animals like mice and zebrafish. Others, meanwhile, have showed that this link works both ways: When scientists transplanted gut bacteria from a group of healthy mice into a group of mice engineered to have no bacteria whatsoever, the lean germ-free mice became fatter. This same effect was seen even when the gut bacteria from obese people was transplanted into these mice.
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