Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine found a link between gender, diet, circadian rhythm, and the microbiome in mice.
“Lacking a gene in the liver that drives the circadian clock was sufficient to not only change the resiliency of these male mice to weight loss during restricted feeding but also to change their gut microbiome,” said senior author Dr. Kjersti Aagaard professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor. “This is the first scientific mechanistic study that shows clear evidence of a complex interplay between the host circadian system, the microbiome and the host metabolism when under dietary stress.”
The study has potential implications in the clinic. “We speculate that our findings may lead to solutions for people who are resistant to losing weight with restricted feeding as well as the opposite situation,” Aagaard said. “If we manipulated the microbiome, could we see lesser or more weight loss by just changing the time of feeding? Our study could also be applied to situations in which we don’t want to see weight loss, such as cancer patients receiving chemotherapy or during times in life when sleep patterns are turned upside down.”
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