Westerners' Gut Microbes Make Them Sick

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Semagic 1.7.4.5U - Alobar Greywalker (alobar) @ livejournal.com

*Westerners' gut microbes make them sick*

Mark Frauenfelder at 10:40 AM Wednesday, Aug 4, 2010

Researchers compared the intestinal microbes of healthy children in Burkina

Faso with those of healthy Italian children and found that the African kids

had significantly more bacteria associated with lean people and less

bacteria associated with obese people.

* Additionally, the researchers detected bacterial strains of Prevotella,

Xylanibacter, and Treponema only in the children from Burkina Faso. These

bacteria are excellent at breaking down fibrous foods and producing

short-chain fatty acids that provide added energy. Studies have also shown

that those same fatty acids help protect the intestines from inflammation,

which could explain why inflammatory bowel disease is almost unheard of in

African communities that eat high-fiber diets, Lionetti says.*

* The increased diversity of microbes in the gut also makes the body more

resistant to intestinal pathogens while tempering the immune system's

response to harmless molecules, leading to fewer allergies, Lionetti says.

The group reports its findings online today in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences.*

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/04/westerners-gut-micro.html