Obesity and excess weight: does your gut microbiota affect your waistline?

Too much fat, too much sugar, not enough exercise... The disease is still too often associated with an unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle. But other less-well-known factors could also play a role, such as heredity, daily living environment and especially miscommunication between gut and brain.

In concert with our gray matter, the large number of microorganisms living in our gut may thus be affecting our eating behaviors (appetite, feeling of satiety, mood, reward pathway, etc.), our metabolism (fat storage, blood sugar levels), our immune response (chronic inflammation) and the integrity of our gut barrier.

While watching what you eat is indispensable no matter what approach you take, bariatric surgery has shown positive results in those suffering from the most severe forms of the disease. However, the arsenal that is now available may well be moving towards a personalized approach and could include, in the future, actions on gut microbiota.

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