The authors of a recent study believe that the medical application of specific gut bacteria might, in the future, help treat type 2 diabetes.
More than
90% of the 34
million people who have diabetes in
the United States have type
2 diabetes.
Individuals with type 2 diabetes do
not produce enough insulin, or their cells do not respond to it appropriately.
As a result, cells do not absorb sugar efficiently, and blood sugar level
rises. Over time, this can cause damage to internal organs.
The Western diet, which is high in
saturated fats and refined sugars, increases the risk of
developing type 2 diabetes. Recently, scientists set out to identify which
specific gut bacteria species might play a role in this association between
diet and diabetes.
The gut microbiome includes hundreds of species of bacteria. Scientists have shown that an
imbalance in the microbiome, or dysbiosis, has associations with adverse health outcomes.
One 2019 study suggested
that a disturbance in the gut microbiome might contribute to the development of
type 2 diabetes.
A recent paper, which appears
in Nature
Communications, suggests that a small number of
specific bacteria might be pivotal.
Scientists from Oregon State
University in Corvallis, OR, the University of Vienna in Austria, the National
Cancer Institute, and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD,
carried out the research.
This paper is important as it shows
that specific bacteria that are not “keystone” influencers
of the whole microbiome may still have an important individual impact on
health.
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