Summary: This article covers a wide array of topics under the microbe-obesity/ disease umbrella. This is an up and coming field in the science community as scientists attempt to understand the science of losing and gaining weight, and how microbes might play a role in it. One of the main points in this article is how the microbes interact with their environment. The environment being a human and what they might be eating, how they are sleeping, and the host’s daily habits. Some of these areas show a marked change in the composition of the gut flora and this change can bring about diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.
Connections: In the article, it talks about how the gut microbiome is really important for humans, otherwise we would be insufficient in breaking down and absorbing all the nutrients we need. Something that I found really interesting in this article is that the gut microbiome changes daily, and not only that but it changes where certain species hang out and what time of the day certain species will thrive at.
Critical Analysis: I found this article interesting as gut flora and obesity are part of the field I would like to get into one day. I mentioned it before, but the gut flora changing composition and location on the daily is something that really struck me as I suppose I have always thought of them as a constant unchanging world unless something drastic in introduced like antibiotics.
I did like that most of the claims made in this article were founded with studies and not like in some mass-media articles that kind of expect the reader to take what they say as fact. This article I think is written more for somebody with at least a little knowledge in the field, unlike many scientific articles I see that are written for just about anyone.
Question: Though we are seeing a marked increase in certain presence/absence of microbes and their correlation with certain disease, could this really be root cause of our problems? Or are there other factors including psychologically and/or socioeconomic factors? Can these also be linked to microbes?
https://www.newswise.com/articles/we-re-only-as-good-as-our-microbiomes-are-happy
1 Comment for “Our guts really tell us what to do”
jnnewman
says:I actually watched some of a documentary about the gut microbes and at one point they talked about those with autism and apparently it’s common for people with autism to have a certain GI disease or issue, which this issue is being found to tie back to gut microflora. So they did a study with “autistic” mice, and those who were inoculated with additional gut microflora species that they were lacking, showed less autistic behaviors. I think researchers are beginning to conclude that the gut microflora may have more answers than we once thought.