14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new investigation whose findings were published in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, the microorganisms found inside an individual's gut impact on that person's overall body weight.
Therefore, it is quite likely that a man or a woman's habitual food intake alone cannot be held accountable for their starting to gain weight.
Following their analyzing the make-up of the breath of a total of 792 volunteers, the scientists who embarked on this research project came to understand that those who released high concentrations of both hydrogen and methane when breathing also had a rather high BMI (i.e. body mass index).
Apart from this, these volunteers were found to have a high percentage of body fat.
Newswise reports that, according to several past investigations, the bacterium first and foremost responsible for producing methane inside the human body is Methanobrevibacter smithii.
Despite its being beneficial to an individual's digestive tract, the researchers speculate that its multiplying beyond control eventually harms the body's natural balance.
“Usually, the microorganisms living in the digestive tract benefit us by helping convert food into energy. However, when this particular organism– M. smithii – becomes overabundant, it may alter this balance in a way that causes someone to be more likely to gain weight,” study lead author Ruchi Mathur, MD, commented with respect to the findings of this investigation.
“Essentially, it could allow a person to harvest more calories from their food,” the researcher went on to argue.
Presently, Ruchi Mathur and his colleagues are busy carrying out a study aimed at pinning down said bacterium's exact links to obesity and health disorders that are known to precede diabetes.
Should they succeed, there might come a time when toying with the microorganisms found inside a person's gut would allow scientists to make that person lose weight.
“This is the first large-scale human study to show an association between gas production and body weight – and this could prove to be another important factor in understanding one of the many causes of obesity,” Ruchi Mathur stressed.