Weight gain after stopping smoking is a serious obstacle to smoking cessation, even for the most motivated. A recent study explores this phenomenon and shows that the microbiota is involved in weight gain after stopping smoking.
You will also be interested
[EN VIDÉO] Is tobacco addiction in our DNA? Smoking is the number one source of preventable death worldwide. Beyond addiction, smoking increases the risk of cancer or cardiovascular disease. Uwe Maskos, head of the Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems Unit at the Institut Pasteur, talks to us about the causes and consequences of smoking during this interview.
The fear of gaining weight is one of the brakes on stopping smoking. About 10% of people who stop to smoke gain, on average, 4.5 kilograms in six months, or almost 10 kilograms in a year. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute think that the intestinal microbiota has its role to play in this weight gain. Microorganisms in our bowels are thought to secrete metabolites involved in weight gain.
Microbiota and weight gain after stopping smoking
Experiments in mice at the Weizmann Institute show that mice exposed to cigarette smoke do not gain weight, despite a high-fat diet. But when the smoke exposure abruptly stops, the mice gain weight. Like humans who quit smoking. A treatment antibiotic which destroys the microbiota stops this phenomenon.
To confirm the role of the microbiota in weight gain after smoking cessation, scientists transplanted the microbiota of mice exposed to smoke to others, without microbiota and who have never inhaled cigarette smoke. As a result, they developed an unbalanced microbial flora and in fine, gained weight. A metabolite, normally present in non-smokers, is much less present in smokers. A metabolic imbalance is created and the intestine becomes much more greedy in energy. The action of this metabolite is counterbalanced by another, which is associated with weight loss during exposure to smoke.
” Our findings shed new light on how the microbiome interacts with the human body to regulate our weight and metabolism, which could be harnessed therapeutically », Explains Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute and director of this study.
Interested in what you just read?
.
fs6