The impact of the gut microbiota on human metabolism

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of obesity is a global health problem due to the associations of obesity with co-morbidities such as diabetes, cancer and stroke. Current obesity management strategies and public health measures are doing little to fight the ever-growing burden of obesity in today’s obesogenic environment, therefore new approaches are clearly required. The gut microbiota has long been implicated in the pathophysiology of a number of diseases and is emerging as an important player in the pathogenesis of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, however the exact nature and mechanism behind how gut bacteria can influence host metabolism is an area of intense debate. This article explores how the gut bacteria can influence energy metabolism and whether our knowledge of this can be converted into useful clinical interventions at a time when better care for obese and metabolically unhealthy patients is fast becoming an urgent necessity.