Latest news with #digestivesystem
Gizmodo
7 days ago
- Health
- Gizmodo
Newly Discovered Gut ‘Sense' Could Change How We Think About Hunger and Health
There really is something to the concept of having a gut feeling. New research out today suggests our bodies can directly sense and communicate with the many bacteria lining our digestive tract. Scientists at Duke University led the study, published Wednesday in Nature. They found that nerve cells can respond in real time to bacterial signals from the gut—including signals that tell us to curb our appetite. The findings suggest the relationship we have with our microbial neighbors is even more complex than thought, the researchers say. Humans are well known for having five basic senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste). But according to the study researchers, growing evidence points to other senses that react specifically to cues from our digestive system, the 'gut sense.' Some of the researchers had previously discovered that certain cells lining the gut can sense specific stimuli and directly communicate with nearby nerve cells that lead back to the brain, called neuropods. And they reasoned that one type of stimuli these cells detect would be the gut microbiome, the trillions of normally harmless, often helpful bacteria and other microbes that live inside us. Study Says U.S. Babies Are Missing a Key Gut Microbe, Fueling Allergy Risk 'We had previously found that neuropod cells in the small intestine sense and rapidly respond to nutrients,' co-lead author Maya Kaelberer, a sensory neuro-gastroenterologist, told Gizmodo. 'It seemed natural to think that neuropod cells of the colon could sense the gut microbiome; therefore, we set out to find out how.' The team focused on an ancient protein found in the tail, or flagella, of many gut bacteria, aptly named flagellin. Gut bacteria appear to produce more flagellin when we eat, and neuropods can detect flagellin through a receptor called the Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5), the researchers found. In experiments with mice, they also showed that this interaction seems to be key to regulating our hunger. When the researchers gave fasting mice flagellin directly through the colon, for instance, the mice ate less than usual. They then knocked out the TLR5 receptor in neuropods and ran the same experiment, finding that the mice now kept eating and gained weight. The findings indicate that increased levels of bacterial flagellin act as a real-time signal for the brain to tamp down our hunger. Neuropods catch this signal through the TLR5 receptor and then quickly transmit it to the brain via the vagus nerve. If the neuropods' ability to detect nutrients could be considered a sixth sense, then its detection of gut microbes might be a distinct, seventh sense, the researchers argue. 'We discovered that our colon has a sense for microbes, the neurobiotic sense,' Kaelberer said. Bizarre Virus-like 'Obelisks' Found in Human Mouths and Guts More research is needed to confirm and better understand how this neurobiotic sense operates in people, of course. But assuming it's genuine, the discovery would have important scientific and medical implications. Certain health conditions might alter the communication between gut bacteria, neuropods, and the brain, for instance, as might things like our diets or environment. And perhaps someday, we'll be able to safely influence this sense to treat or prevent such conditions. 'If you lived in a world where everything you saw was blue—blue walls, blue ground, blue computers, blue cars… Then you come home to see a yellow/orange peach on your blue table; it would have a profound effect on your experience. Knowing this, can we target this sense to have that same profound experience without the peach?' Kaelberer said. This is still just the beginning of the team's exploratory work. They next hope to uncover whether neuropods can also detect immune-related signals. In the meanwhile, I'll be sure to thank my gut bacteria from now on for helping me have at least some restraint when it's time for dessert.
Fox News
24-06-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Teen with unnamed condition can't eat any food, baffling doctors worldwide
A teenager who is unable to eat any food at all has a condition so rare that doctors said they haven't found anyone else with the same ailment. Finley Ranson, age 14, was born with an extreme response to all food, with his body reacting as if it was a virus and causing him to bleed internally. "I've got a rare condition where I can't have fat into my stomach," the boy told news agency SWNS. "It is impacting my life, as I've not been able to eat any food or drink other than water." (See the video at the top of this article.) The boy's digestive system cannot tolerate lipids, which are fatty compounds or oils that are found in foods. When Ranson, who is from England, was 4 years old, he was taken to a London hospital, "where a central line fed nutrients and minerals into his heart," his mother said. "It was a game-changer. He was happy, bouncing and starting to put on weight." Finley now regularly receives the lipid infusions via a tube, which enters his chest and goes to the central vein in his heart. He receives carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals three times a day into his stomach via a different tube. He started undergoing the six-hour process every week when he was 4 years old. For the past five years, it has been twice a week. "We have to bypass the gastrointestinal tract completely," Dr. Manas Datta, a pediatrician who has treated Finley since birth, told the BBC. Doctors tried introducing separate ingredients from the tube into the boy's stomach, but "as soon as they put the lipid in, we took 10 steps back," the boy's mother, Rhys Ranson, told SWNS. Ranson's condition is so rare that it doesn't even have a name, although he has dubbed it "Finley-itis." His condition has baffled medical professionals, who believe he may be one of the only people whose body reacts to lipids in this way. "That's the unfortunate thing that we bump up against in medicine with rare diseases that confound doctors," Dr. Neeta Ogden, an allergist and immunologist in Edison, New Jersey, who is not involved in Ranson's care, told Fox News Digital. For more Lifestyle articles, visit Dr. Stephen Tilles, an allergy and immunology specialist in Seattle, told Fox News Digital that Ranson's condition is not the sort of thing typically associated with a food allergy. "Obviously, it's an adverse reaction to the lipid component of food, but that's not on the list of things that allergists will encounter in their practices," said Tilles, who is also unaffiliated with Ranson's care. Doctors originally believed Ranson might be allergic to breast milk, but after being fed hypoallergenic milk through a tube, he still failed to thrive, his mother reported. "His stools were all blood and mucus, and he wouldn't put on weight" when he was a baby, Rhys Ranson told SWNS. "We have to bypass the gastrointestinal tract completely." She is now being trained to perform the lipid infusions at home, which she hopes will improve her son's quality of life. "We're unsure what the future looks like," she said. "We hope there's a day that comes [when] he can have a normal diet … but if not, as long as Finley's happy and healthy and thriving the way he is, we're happy to continue what life is like for us at the moment."
