Obesity may be contagious, study
Posted on: 08/May/2016 10:47:15 AM
It may be shocking, but true. If you are obese, you may spread your obesity to other slimmer people, claims a new study. According to scientists, the gut bacteria will remain dormant in spores for prolonged time period in the form of bacterial hibernation.
This indicates that the bacteria can very much be alive outside the body and get transferred from one person to the other by being ingested. As per estimates, about 2 percent of a person’s body weight is directly linked to bacteria as it can largely affect the gut microbiome of a person.
Apart from obesity, this research can aid different conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and irritable bowel syndrome. The research was performed by researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the results were published in Nature journal.
Speaking about this, Dr Sam Forster of Sanger Institute and the Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Australia said the wide range of database of genome that we have obtained from such bacteria is necessary for knowing the type of bacterial present or absent in people who have gastrointestinal conditions. It is now possible for us to begin with designing mixtures of therapeutic candidates for this disease.
