This is fascinating! I'll have to read a few times to comprehend fully. My son has a rare disease, granulomatosis polyangiitis, and diabetes and is on chemo and other meds. He has gained a lot of weight, is on Ozempic, and hasn’t lost an ounce.
I wish this was something to look into. Strangely, he doesn't lose weight (318 lbs) and eats around 2500-3000 kcals a day.
Hi Mary, thanks for sharing your experience! I empathize with the struggles of juggling multiple chronic diseases. Is the weight gain secondary to corticosteroid use? Some medications might interact with Ozempic, but it's also possible that the inflammatory cytokine production in the setting of GPA could interfere with GLP-1 receptor function.
Yes, he's been off of the steroids for 3 years, and it caused the 110 weight gain. He now gets infusions every 4 months as maintenance. I'm pretty sure he is on rituximab; I don’t know the side effects of that. Actually, as of the writing, he just got out of a 5-hour surgery, nose nasal sinus reconstruction. He goes to the UCLA Rare Disease Center. Ronald Reagan Hospital.I am interested in the bio.. Can’t remember what it's called… the research Info. But weight isn’t always about consumption of foods.
If this a study only? Peer-reviewed other research? You're the best and most amazing info.
Great article, Nita! I'm impressed with the range of applications for GLP-1 drugs, though I do worry about their side effects and what happens to individuals after they stop taking them. It would be fantastic if we could harness the microbiome to achieve similar benefits for those struggling with metabolic syndrome. Another intriguing possibility is that certain gut microbes might contribute to weight gain. In that case, perhaps we could even use bacteriophage therapeutics to selectively target and remove those specific microbes from the microbiome.
Absolutely, the energy harvesting potential of the microbiota hardly receives any attention, and some examples are even beneficial. The microbial metabolite butyrate provides a source of energy to colonocytes, which helps maintain a low pH, prevent pathogen invasion, and preclude cancer development. On the other hand, microbial metabolites like hydrogen sulfide typically correspond to poorer metabolic health.
Another big challenge I see is testing and understanding your microbiome. What is currently available in the market is very expensive which makes trying these interventions quite expensive.
However, I am so excited to see obesity being discussed beyond calories in and calories out. We must look at the individual as a whole, including their microbiome, to form a full picture of what is going on. Rather than labelling people as lazy, we must understand that there is so many variables that play at someone's weight.
Yes! And direct-to-consumer companies all have their own methodologies from choice of cryoprotectant to sequencing method to bioinformatics libraries, so it’s impossible to compare across tests.
Agreed, we need to stop framing obesity as a moral deficit and build models that reflect the diverse causes of weight gain. Interestingly, Germany was investigating hormonal causes of obesity like insulin resistance during WWII, but much of that research was lost after Germany’s defeat.
To this day, many school textbooks display cognitive dissonance on the topic, simultaneously acknowledging the role of hormones while insisting that obesity is nothing but a calories equation.
Thanks for sharing; I always love anything microbiome-related! =)
This is fascinating! I'll have to read a few times to comprehend fully. My son has a rare disease, granulomatosis polyangiitis, and diabetes and is on chemo and other meds. He has gained a lot of weight, is on Ozempic, and hasn’t lost an ounce.
I wish this was something to look into. Strangely, he doesn't lose weight (318 lbs) and eats around 2500-3000 kcals a day.
Hi Mary, thanks for sharing your experience! I empathize with the struggles of juggling multiple chronic diseases. Is the weight gain secondary to corticosteroid use? Some medications might interact with Ozempic, but it's also possible that the inflammatory cytokine production in the setting of GPA could interfere with GLP-1 receptor function.
Yes, he's been off of the steroids for 3 years, and it caused the 110 weight gain. He now gets infusions every 4 months as maintenance. I'm pretty sure he is on rituximab; I don’t know the side effects of that. Actually, as of the writing, he just got out of a 5-hour surgery, nose nasal sinus reconstruction. He goes to the UCLA Rare Disease Center. Ronald Reagan Hospital.I am interested in the bio.. Can’t remember what it's called… the research Info. But weight isn’t always about consumption of foods.
If this a study only? Peer-reviewed other research? You're the best and most amazing info.
Great article, Nita! I'm impressed with the range of applications for GLP-1 drugs, though I do worry about their side effects and what happens to individuals after they stop taking them. It would be fantastic if we could harness the microbiome to achieve similar benefits for those struggling with metabolic syndrome. Another intriguing possibility is that certain gut microbes might contribute to weight gain. In that case, perhaps we could even use bacteriophage therapeutics to selectively target and remove those specific microbes from the microbiome.
Absolutely, the energy harvesting potential of the microbiota hardly receives any attention, and some examples are even beneficial. The microbial metabolite butyrate provides a source of energy to colonocytes, which helps maintain a low pH, prevent pathogen invasion, and preclude cancer development. On the other hand, microbial metabolites like hydrogen sulfide typically correspond to poorer metabolic health.
Another big challenge I see is testing and understanding your microbiome. What is currently available in the market is very expensive which makes trying these interventions quite expensive.
However, I am so excited to see obesity being discussed beyond calories in and calories out. We must look at the individual as a whole, including their microbiome, to form a full picture of what is going on. Rather than labelling people as lazy, we must understand that there is so many variables that play at someone's weight.
Yes! And direct-to-consumer companies all have their own methodologies from choice of cryoprotectant to sequencing method to bioinformatics libraries, so it’s impossible to compare across tests.
Agreed, we need to stop framing obesity as a moral deficit and build models that reflect the diverse causes of weight gain. Interestingly, Germany was investigating hormonal causes of obesity like insulin resistance during WWII, but much of that research was lost after Germany’s defeat.
To this day, many school textbooks display cognitive dissonance on the topic, simultaneously acknowledging the role of hormones while insisting that obesity is nothing but a calories equation.