Gaining and losing weight causes extensive changes in the gut microbiota and in biomarkers related to inflammation and heart disease, researchers report today (January 17) in Cell Systems. The authors tracked what they call “personal omics profiles,” composed of the genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics, of people who ate an average of 880 extra calories every day for a month.
…
“It’s a landmark paper,” says Leroy Hood, chief strategic officer at the Institute for Systems Biology, a Seattle biomedical nonprofit organization, and senior vice president and chief science officer at Providence St. Joseph Health. … Using this type of data “to study aspects of disease is going to be a transformational approach in medicine, and this is one of the first beautiful, clear demonstrations of how powerful that will be,” he says.
…
Although subjects only gained an average of about six pounds, the researchers detected considerable changes in molecules related to fat metabolism, inflammation, and dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart is less able to pump blood, which can lead to heart failure.
Related on the SLP
…
Most of the changes went back to baseline after weight loss, but a few—such as molecules associated with folate metabolism—stayed elevated. And while the researchers saw some common responses to weight gain and loss across the group, “you still look more like you than somebody else,” Snyder explains. “That means that our inherent biochemical profiles are pretty stable, at least through weight gain [and] weight loss.”
Read full, original post: How Gaining and Losing Weight Affects the Body
