Displaying posts tagged with

“obesity”

Obesity: the role of the immune system

Obesity is one symptom of several, which together constitute what is now termed metabolic syndrome. Morbid obesity is also associated with a host of other symptoms including high blood sugar, high blood lipids, insulin resistance  and liver disorders. The root causes of which are traced back to excessive food consumption, reduced physical activity and in […]

The workings of a cellular water pore, and something about obesity

Maintaining a water balance is essential to life.  Cells must regulate their water content carefully and within a very narrow margin. Too much water intake, and the cell bursts like a water balloon; too much water outflow, and it shrivels like a raisin. The cell itself is contained in a waterproof membrane. But there are […]

Every Man an Island, Pt. 2

(Continued from  part 1) Why we are islands In the previous post we have seen how  our bacterial population affects  our weight  and that by changing our dietary habits we can change the species composition in our guts. Also, we saw how a metagenomic analysis can lead to verifiable hypotheses: using a metagenomic analysis, Gordon’s […]

Every Man an Island, Pt. 1

No man is an island, entire of itself — John Donne, Meditation XVII Scanning electron microscope images of B. thetaiotaomicron, a prominent human gut bacterium, and the intestine. From: Human Gut Hosts a Dynamically Evolving Microbial Ecosystem Gross L PLoS Biology Vol. 5, No. 7, e199 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050199 Only one out of ten cells in our […]