Early findings about link to obesity & formula

[BellyBelly]

Bacteria Mix in Guts of Babies Predicts Obesity

Findings may explain why breast-fed infants less likely to be overweight later
By Kathleen Doheny
Posted 3/7/08

FRIDAY, March 7 (HealthDay News) -- The mix of bacteria in a baby's gut may predict whether that infant will become overweight or obese later in life, a new study suggests.

Babies with high numbers of bifidobacteria and low numbers of Staphylococcus aureus may be protected from excess weight gain, according to a team of researchers from the University of Turku in Finland.

Their study was published in the March issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The researchers suggested their findings may help explain why breast-fed babies are at lower risk for later obesity, since bifidobacteria are prevalent in the guts of breast-fed babies.

Other studies repeatedly have found that being breast-fed is associated with a reduced risk of excess weight or obesity in childhood, with the risk lowered from 13 percent to 22 percent.

In the new study, researchers evaluated children who had been part of a long-term study to evaluate the effect of probiotics on allergic disease. Probiotics are potentially beneficial bacteria found in foods such as yogurt and in dietary supplements.

The children had been evaluated at birth, five more times before age 2, and then again at ages 4 and 7. The researchers in the original study had also tested for intestinal microbes in fecal samples collected at 6 months and 12 months.

For this latest study, the Finnish researchers selected 49 participants from the larger study -- 25 of them were overweight or obese at age 7 years, and 24 were normal weight at the same age.

When they looked at the fecal samples, the average bacterial counts of bifidobacteria when taken at 6 months and 12 months were twice as high in those who were a healthy weight as in those who got heavy.

Those who stayed at a healthy weight also had lower fecal S. aureus levels at 6 months and 12 months than did those who got heavy.

The S. aureus may trigger low-grade inflammation, the authors speculated, and that may also contribute to developing obesity.

In other research, gut bacteria in adults have been found to be altered in obese adults who lost weight. Someday, the Finnish researchers speculated, tinkering with gut flora may help prevent or treat obesity.

The latest study doesn't pinpoint exactly why intestinal bacteria are linked with the development of obesity, said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis and president of the American Dietetic Association.

"The exact role that bacteria in the intestine play in development of obesity is still the subject of much research," she said, "but the benefits of breast-feeding are clear. Breast-feeding provides not only the proper nutrition for your infant, but it provides benefits that may impact long-term health and weight issues as well."

However, she added that, "while breast-feeding may play a role in the weight of children, so many other factors influence weight that parents shouldn't ignore good role modeling of healthy food choices, proper portions and regular physical activity. Healthy weight is a combination of factors, and no single issue will be the cause of weight gain or the magic answer to weight loss."

Another expert who has studied how obesity changes microbes in the gut calls the new study unique, because it collected information over several years and could look for differences in gut microflora. "The finding, that the lean children harbored higher levels of bifidobacteria at younger ages, is very intriguing," says Ruth Ley, a research assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Still, she says, research on the role of gut bacteria in regulating body weight is in the very early stages.

More information

To learn more about breast-feeding, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Copyright ? 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

I also often wonder about the role of antibiotics in labour which play havoc with babies gut too, not so much with the link to obesity but in general. Since FF babies don't get pro-biotics from mum (I know some formulas have added one strain of probiotics, but there are many strains)... all interesting how each little thing we interfere with throws out so much

[Arimeh]

Hmm.. interesting study. However, I'm the overweight one in my family, and I was breastfed the longest. Same with my DH, he is the only overweight child out of all his siblings and they were all breastfed for the same amount of time....... interesting...

[ShootingStar]

Hmm yeh interesting too.. though i was forumla fed from birth, as was my brother and sister and none of us are no where near over weight.

[BellyBelly]

I don't think it refers to obesity in adulthood in this study only childhood.

The rate of obesity in formula fed babies was not 100% so there are going to people who were FF and are not obese. It's just found (like other studies) that its more likely.

[ShootingStar]

Oh well yeh, neither of my siblings or i were over weight as a child either.

I guess for them to put out that article, its just another thing to make us mums who cant breastfeed feel more guilty.

[BellyBelly]

If you look at it that way. No-one can create guilt but ourselves.

But if you look at it constructively, if they can isolate something specific in the good bacteria then I am sure you will see formula companies add it in or something, or it could lead to something proactive like that. So its all in the way you look at it and how you make yourself feel about it.

Have a read of this if you haven't already: Artificial Feeding - Nothing To Do With Breastfeeding

[Liz]

Well, like they said, it's not just this one thing that will cause or prevent obesity, but it is very interesting.

Kelly - I read about antibiotics in labour being a possible cause of colic. I had AB because I'd been ill and they weren't sure that's why I had gone into pre-term labour.. and DD had quite bad wind/colic. Her's may have been a combination of a premmie belly as well as the AB I suppose. Altho, it didn't rear it's ugly head until she was about 5 or 6 weeks old, so I dunno. There were no immediate probs from the AB.

The human body is a pretty finely tuned machine isn't it. I read somewhere too that we shouldn't worm our kids regularly (don't know if ppl do anyway do they??) because there are good worms that we are supposed to have in our guts. Keep everything simple and as natural as possible I say

[Visitor8]

hmm well both my boys were FF early and neither are overweight. For every person who says their child was FF and is overweight there is just as many saying the opposite.
Jaidan was the earliest FF of my 2 and he is skinny as a rake.

[Toomanytoomany]

For those who are uncomfortable with these studies being published or discussed, I'd like to respectfully ask, what would you prefer be done?

That research into the benefits of breastmilk not be done? Or that it not be discussed when it is done? Or that scientific research be published with caveats about how despite the findings of the research, parents who feel bad shouldn't feel that the findings might apply to them? Scientific research is not judgement, it is neutral. What we choose to do with it is another matter.

For many women, the struggles of breastfeeding are outweighed by the knowledge that breastmilk is giving particular health benefits to their child. And so they persevere, and the general benefit to the population is increased (whether or not we choose to put our anecdotal experience above empirical evidence).

It's good for our babies, it's good for mothers, and it's good for our health system, for the health-giving mechanisms of breastfeeding to be understood. I don't see that the benefit to people who feel guilty about formula feeding is more important than the benefit of giving parents the absolutely best information they can to make the most informed choices they can.

If people who have either chosen to formula feed or have been forced to do so want scientific studies to show that there are no health implications in this course of action, they're going to be upset. There's just too much evidence. So rather than shooting the messenger, let's all look towards better education and getting as much information a we possibly can, so that we can all make the best decisions we possibly can, and be at peace with them, knowing we've done the very best we could in the circumstances we found ourselves.

[heliana]

I thought that article was interesting. I do agree that some studies tend to find what they want. Some of the graphs they put up at uni, which show definately that something caused something, I sit there and think, but look, it was allready reducing, or couldn't something else have been the cause.
But I do think that bacteria can do alot of good, and not only in bm, in the past I think most people consumed alot more of them than they do now - sourdough bread, real yoghurt, cultured butter, raw milk, sourkrout (?), grapes are treated to kill natural yeasts, I think I read somewhere grain is steralised too. And potatoes are treated, thats why you have seed potatoes and normal potatoes- so I guess that would kill the yeasts/bacterias on them too.
I think they are putting probiotics into formula now aren't they? I guess that is the benefit of these studies.
I've seen some other interesting studies too, showing the effect pre-natal nutrition has on obesity.
Plus there are those emails about msg fat rats