<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Friday, March 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Baby’s gut bacteria may predict obesity

By Michael Precker, American Heart Association News
Published: May 25, 2021, 6:05am

New research into the growing problem of early childhood obesity suggests the bacteria in a baby’s gut may indicate weight problems in the years to come.

Researchers examined gut microbiota — bacteria and other microbes in the digestive system — of babies, as well as their body mass index, a common gauge of overweight and obesity. The study is being presented at the American Heart Association’s virtual Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Conference.

Being able “to identify modifiable early life factors that are associated with early childhood weight gain is an opportunity for prevention of cardiovascular risk factors and heart disease later. That’s why we zeroed in on microbiota in children,” said Moira Differding, who led the study.

The latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show obesity affected 13.4 percent of children ages 2-5 in 2017-18, with the figure rising to 20.3 percent among 6- to 11-year-olds.

Differding, a Ph.D. candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said past studies involving animals and older people have suggested disruption in gut microbiota can lead to low-level inflammation, which could contribute to weight gain and obesity.

To track that connection earlier in life, the researchers examined microbiota extracted from stool samples of more than 200 babies in New Hampshire, both at 6 weeks and 1 year old. Then they measured their BMI up to age 5.

A higher abundance of two types of bacteria — Klebsiella and Citrobacter — in the stool of 6-week-old babies was associated with higher BMIs as they got older. The same was true for the bacteria Prevotella found in the stool of 1-year-olds. The findings are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

“It shows that the microbiota at an earlier age actually predicts the child’s BMI two to five years later. That’s extending our knowledge, and it’s pretty cool,” said Peter Katzmarzyk, a professor of physical activity and obesity epidemiology at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. He was not involved with the study.

Differding said an infant’s microbiota could be affected by environmental factors, diet and antibiotics. Figuring out how to minimize microbiota linked to obesity could help battle weight gain later in life.

Loading...