I'm using Bacteroidetes bacteria. I've been taking the bacteria for 3 weeks.
I’ll keep everyone posted on my results. As to-date I've lost 6 LBS. My routine hasn't changed but made it threw the holidays without gaining weight.

WASHINGTON - Maybe it's germs that are making you fat. Researchers found a strong connection between obesity and the levels of certain types of bacteria in the gut. That could mean that someday there will be novel new ways of treating obesity that go beyond the standard advice of diet and exercise.

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According to two studies being published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, both obese mice and people had more of one type of bacteria and less of another kind.

A "microbial component" appears to contribute to obesity, said study lead author Jeffrey Gordon, director of Washington University's Center for Genome Sciences.

Obese humans and mice had a lower percentage of a family of bacteria called Bacteroidetes and more of a type of bacteria called Firmicutes, Gordon and his colleagues found.

The researchers aren't sure if more Firmicutes makes you fat or if people who are obese grow more of that type of bacteria.

But growing evidence of this link gives scientists a potentially new and still distant way of fighting obesity: Change the bacteria in the intestines and stomach. It also may lead to a way of fighting malnutrition in the developing world.

"We are getting more and more evidence to show that obesity isn't what we thought it used to be," said Nikhil Dhurandhar, a professor of infection and obesity at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

"It isn't just (that) you're eating too much and you're lazy."

Dhurandhar wasn't part of the research, but said it may change the way obesity is treated eventually.

He said the field of "infectobesity" looks at obesity with multiple causes, including viruses and microbes. In another decade or so, the different causes of obesity could have different treatments. The current regimen of diet and exercise "is like treating all fevers with one aspirin," Dhurandhar said.

In one of the two studies in Nature, Gordon and colleagues looked at what happened in mice with changes in bacteria level. When lean mice with no germs in their guts had larger ratios of Firmicutes transplanted, they got "twice as fat" and took in more calories from the same amount of food than mice with the more normal bacteria ratio, said Washington University microbiology instructor Ruth Ley, a study co-author.

It was as if one group got far more calories from the same bowl of Cheerios than the other, Gordon said.

In a study of dozen dieting people, the results also were dramatic.

Before dieting, about 3 percent of the gut bacteria in the obese participants was Bacteroidetes. But after dieting, the now normal-sized people had much higher levels of Bacteroidetes — close to 15 percent, Gordon said.

"I think that gut bacteria affects body weight," said Virginia Commonwealth University pathology professor Richard Atkinson, who wasn't part of the research team and is president of Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond. "I don't think there's any doubt about that and they showed that."

The growing field of research puts more importance in the trillions of microbes that live in our guts and elsewhere, crediting it with everything from generations of people getting taller to increases in diabetes and asthma.

People are born germ-free, but within days they have a gut blooming with microbes. The microbes come from first foods — either breast milk or formula — the exterior environment, and the way the babies are born, said Stanford University medicine and microbiology professor David Relman, who was not part of the study.

For decades, doctors have treated bacteria in a "warlike" manner, yet recent research shows that "most encounters we have with microbes are very beneficial," Gordon said.

"Much of who we are and what we can do and can't do as human beings is directly related to microbial inhabitants," Relman said.

In what form are you getting these Bacteroidetes bacteria? I know you can get some kinds of bateria from food and/or capsule form, but I've never seen this kind.

I don't think I'd rush into anything. I've read several articles about this recently, and they don't say that taking the bacteria will help your weight. There don't seem to be any published studies having proven that yet. What they seem to be saying is that losing weight appears to contribute to naturally producing normal amounts of it.

When I read the article, I thought OMG, how many supplement companies are going to jump on this and stretch it into a sales pitch for something we don't know anything about yet The whole thing is in a very "iffy" stage. I'd suggest we wait a while and see what the published studies say.

The bacteria is a powder. It is not the bacteria found in yogurt.
My family doctor made me aware of it. And referred me to a company that
makes medical bacteria.It is the same bacteria that Washington University's
used for the study.

As to-date I've lost 6 LBS (3 WKS).My routine hasn't changed but made it threw the holidays without gaining weight. Only 1 in 500 make
the holidays without some weight gain.

Well good luck with that. I find that healthy eating and exercise work best long term.

I agree whole-heartedly. However, I also suffer from IBS and am looking into probiotics to help with that problem. I have found a couple things that I'm going to buy (currently I just eat yogurt daily) but was wondering if you could really BUY this stuff.

I read the articles last week or so when they came out and I thought to myself that someone would jump on the bandwagon to try and market something with this name.....people always want an easy out. But if dieting actually does reduce the amount of this bacteria in your gut, then what can you do to naturally enhance it? Some of the articles suggested smaller, more frequent meals. I don't know why that would work.

I work out 3-4 days per week for 60 min. I eat reasonably responsible.
But what is wrong with a little bacteria help, along with eating properly and exercise.

I don't think you're understanding me. I had said that someone would try and market this as soon as the word came out--yet I haven't actually seen it myself so I wonder where it can be obtained.

Obviously what you are doing (eating properly and exercising) is working for you and getting a little bacteria help wouldn't be a bad thing. As I said earlier, I do eat yogurt to get that king of bacteria in my system. I wonder if having more of this other bacteria would also benefit me any my IBS. When you suffer like I do with painful bouts of IBS related problems, I latch onto whatever might be beneficial. Some of the previous things I have tried have not worked, but there is one supplement that I take that helps me about 80% of the time. I have the name of a new product that I plan to buy as soon as I get to the nutrition store.

You came in here and started pushing hard on the bacteria, Ronny. What's your interest in the product/company?

I'm a little confused. Some bacteria is good for us and some is bad for us, right?

Also, I don't know where the article you included came from (you offered no citation. I suppose I could google it, but am too lazy right now). The article said: "The researchers aren't sure if more Firmicutes makes you fat or if people who are obese grow more of that type of bacteria." The research on the mice looked like an experiment, but in the people, that is not a true experimental design, so causation can't be established.

In other words, there is a correlation between the bacteria and obesity, but they don't yet know if this is a causal relationship. It is very well established that correlation does not imply causation (at least, that's what I tell my research design students over and over and over again.)

The article doesn't really say that we know the bacteria is good for you OR that it CAUSES weight loss. I'd say it's certainly possible that adding the bacteria is bad... for you and your wallet.

If you're eating right and exercise, isn't it also possible that's the cause of your weight loss?

For me, I'd want to see more research before I plunked down my money.

Wyllen,

The report was released sometime last week, but the bottom line is that although this happened with mice, the truth of the matter is that we absorb the nutrients, including the calories and fat, at the small intestine. This bacteria sits in the large intestine. The problem among obese folks is not there (at the large intestine).

To market this as a weight-loss remedy is yet one more assault on a population that already is desperate, spends way too much money looking for quick-fixes, and has a soul full of hope.

The answer to weight loss is to BURN MORE THAN YOU CONSUME! And that advice is free, easy to follow, and available to anyone.

The NIH has said that less than .001 of the obese population has an illness that PREVENTS THEM FROM LOSING WEIGHT. However, that same population is the sickest group in our society and will soon beat out cancer as cause of death.

It is an epidemic! So rather than look for fancy pills and powders and belts and straps, we ought to hit the schools and fight for better choices in cafeterias; demand that restaurants and fast food joints offer better fare (turkey burger anyone?); insist that the Department of Education fund SERIOUS nutrition classes as freely as they fund football and basketball!

It's all up to us and we can make a difference. Who better than people living with it to be the voice?

Diva -- Thanks for the explanation. Makes me wonder then, if the mechanism is different with mice?

Anyway, I appreciate the quick reply!

Diva,
You are absolutely right. The weight loss industry is a multi billion dollar industry that thrives on its own failure. I remember hearing a few years ago about Leptin but didn't read much about it. Recently, I've been reading "You: On a diet" that says that Leptin did help rats lose weight. In humans though, Leptin will only have limited effects. The reasons being that most overweight people have enough leptin in their system already but they have either developed a resistance and/or their pleasure hormones cancel out the effects of leptin. I thought it was interesting that losing weight was linked to increasing sensitivity to leptin. It is a catch 22. In order to help us maintain our weight, our body needs us to not be obese. Anyway, until I see solid research backed proof and medical community support on any supplement, I'm not wasting my money.