A Surprising Cause of Obesity

The current research is on mice, not humans, but Gewirtz and his team have found preliminary indications that their findings apply to us, too. A certain percentage of people are TLR5 deficient, and thus far, it looks as though they may be prone to obesity, just like mice. But only one in 250 people are TLR5-deficient—a tiny percentage of the obese population—so the point isn’t to show that TLR5-deficiency is a significant cause of obesity, but rather that the mouse work applies to humans. The research is also meant to show that something that alters humans’ bacterial composition can affect their metabolism.

One thing you shouldn’t take away from these findings is the idea that if you have this or that bacterial profile, you’re screwed. Both Gewirtz’s and Covasa’s research has shown that, no matter what your intestinal bacterial profile, you do have to eat more for the adverse metabolic effects to take hold.

Right now, some doctors rely on invasive gastric bypass surgery to treat obesity; these findings indicate that there might be another way. The end goal is to isolate just what a healthy bacterial profile looks like and, if possible, which types of bacteria are particularly important. From there, researchers could develop a way of manipulating obese people’s microbiota to potentially decrease their proneness to metabolic syndrome—and protect their health.

MORE: How to Talk to Your Doctor About Weight Issues