Disordered eating, insulin restriction reduce beneficial gut microbes
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Disordered eating and insulin restriction were associated with a reduced abundance of short-chain fatty acid-producing gut microbes among young adults with type 1 diabetes with overweight or obesity, researchers reported.
“Our data provide preliminary evidence that disordered eating may reduce the proportion of gut microbes that produce short-chain fatty acids in people with type 1 diabetes,” Daria Igudesman, PhD, RD, postdoctoral fellow in the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute, Orlando, told Healio. “This could limit the ability of these beneficial metabolites to resolve inflammation and feed the cells of the large intestine, regulate blood glucose once short-chain fatty acids are absorbed into circulation and promote appetite by stimulating the release of hormones involved in satiation.”
For this study, published in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, researchers collected stool samples at four time points from 45 young adults with type 1 diabetes participating in a hypothesis-generating gut microbiome pilot study supporting weight management. Using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing, researchers measured the normalized abundance of short-chain fatty acid-producing intestinal microbes and assessed disordered eating and insulin restriction through the Diabetes Eating Problem Survey-Revised. Data collection was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, so researchers restricted repeated models to pre-COVID-19 data.
Results included data from 109 visits, with 65 visits pre-COVID-19 from 42 of the participants. At more than half (53.3%) of visits, participants reported restricting insulin “at least sometimes.” Prior to COVID-19, each 5-point Diabetes Eating Problem Survey-Revised increase was associated with a reduced normalized abundance of Anaerostipes of –0.34 (P = .07). In addition, researchers observed a reduction of the normalized abundance of Lachnospira by –0.94 when insulin restriction was reported “at least sometimes” compared with when it was reported “rarely or never” (P = .02).
“Our hypothesis-generating pilot study requires replication in larger samples designed specifically to assess the disordered eating-microbiome relationship,” Igudesman said. “In addition to considering gut microbial composition, future studies should evaluate the functionality of the microbes that are impacted by disordered eating in people with type 1 diabetes.”
According to Igudesman, it will also be important for large-scale studies like the Nutrition for Precision Health study to develop predictive algorithms to determine how participant characteristics, including the gut microbiome, and the environment, including diet, can be utilized in tailoring treatments to individuals with a variety of diseases. In addition, more objective measures of disordered eating are required due to the secrecy associated with disordered eating.
“Treating and preventing disordered eating in type 1 diabetes is paramount for numerous reasons,” Igudesman said. “Our study suggests that a previously unknown benefit may be maintenance or restoration of a beneficial milieu of microbes and their signaling metabolites.”
For more information:
Daria Igudesman, PhD, RD, can be reached at daria.igudesman@adventhealth.com.
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