Probiotics and Metabolism-Obesity
Dr. Ioannis John Toliopoulos, PhD, Clinical-laboratorial Physiology, Post doc Reproductive Immunology
The clinical relevance of obesity is enormous. An increased body weight is associated with the development of several severe chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, musculoskeletal disorders, and various cancers. Each year, 28 million individuals worldwide die from the consequences of being overweight or obese.
The gut microbiota consists of trillions of microorganisms and thousands of bacterial species that have specific functions in the host’s nutrient metabolism, xenobiotic and drug metabolism, maintenance of structural integrity of the gut mucosal barrier, immunomodulation, and protection against pathogens.
Dysbiosis has been described in irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, allergic diseases, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, arteriosclerotic diseases, several neurologic diseases, and metabolic syndromes, most notably diabetes and obesity.
Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species are the most studied probiotics.
Strains included within the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera and Akkermansia muciniphilaare, those for which the most attractive results have been obtained.
Recent literature review of 105 studies performed on overweight but not obese patients revealed that probiotics improve weight loss. Specifically, consuming a probiotic that contained three or more strains during eight weeks improved markers of metabolic health such as a slight decrease in weight loss, body fat mass and waist circumference in overweight individuals.
In individuals with type 2 diabetes, regular probiotic consumption improved blood sugar levels and resulted in decreased body weight and inflammation that are often seen in patients with metabolic disease.
The authors conclude that different strains of probiotics may work synergistically to cause diverse effects on host metabolism such as fat absorption, sugar digestion, inflammation as well as the production of the beneficial metabolites short chain fatty acids. However, the exact mechanisms behind the action of probiotics remain to be discovered; therefore, more studies are needed.
Probiotics also could reduce the fat accumulation, downregulate inflammation levels, and improve the insulin sensitivity accompanied by the increase of the neuropeptides and gastrointestinal peptides and the abundance of several beneficial bacteria
In another definition, obesity is regarded as a subclinical low-grade inflammation and associates the effects of probiotics with the regulation of cytokines (IL-10, IL-17, and IL-22) and reduction of pro-inflammatory genes. In some in-vitro and in-vivo studies of Lactobacillus acidophilus, suppression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-a, IL-1b, and IL-17 and also increased amounts of IL-10 and regulatory T cells were resulted.
Conclusion
Lifestyle modifications still remain the primary therapy for obesity and the related metabolic disorders. Most of medications for treatment of obesity are taken out the production because of their adverse effects. Novel therapies targeting one or more of the underlying etiological factors are desirable. One of the potential ideal strategy for obesity treatment may be manipulation with gut microbiota. Firstly, this therapy is safe, due to absence of reported adverse effects, well-tolerated and appropriate for long-term use
NOTE:
The potential formula that prevent from CA of intestine and has many advantages in the human organism is a combination of prebiotic, probiotic, and symbiotic, and this is all in one in the innovative Swiss formula, called Probioflor and Probioflor plus. This is because with only one capsule for a formation of the good flora in the intestine, only one capsule is enough for a period of 30 days to build the good bacteria in the GI tract. The maintenance of this treatment is kept by the administration of one capsule the first 10 days of the month for three months. So, two bottles are enough to build and maintain a good function of the intestine. More details of the probiotics can be seen in the following link: https://konstantinioncenter.org/?p=3629&lang=en
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