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Migration from one country to the United States remains one of the most debated issues. However, a new study says that moving to "the Land of the Free" might destroy the strength of a migrant's gut biology.
Biologists from the University of Minnesota partnered with biologists from around the world to see just how drastically the Westernized diet affects new US residents. The Minnesota team drew inspiration from the various refugee communities in the area. They hoped that by understanding how to adapt to high-fat, high-sodium, and high-calorie diets, the study could give insight into issues like obesity and diabetes.
Giving up microbial health with migration
While the legal process for immigration is taking place, migrants experience degrading gut health "almost immediately" after arriving in the US, according to the researchers.
"We found that immigrants begin to lose their germs in the US" (http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/articles/index.htm), "explained senior author Dan Knights, a computer scientist and quantitative biologist at the University of Minnesota. . "But the new microbes are not enough to compensate for the loss of the native microbes, so we see a big overall loss of diversity."
Residents of developing nations around the world have many different gut bacteria than people brought on a traditional Western diet. Microbiome health keeps the human body in check, and a more diverse biome betters a person's chances of fending off various diseases.
However, the researchers said it was "striking to see this loss of diversity actually happening in "migrants.
The researchers drew their inspiration from Minnesota's large migrant group from Southeast Asia. More specifically, that included the Hmong and Karen people groups – ethnic minorities originally from China and Burma.
The team used Hmong and Karen communities in Minnesota and Thailand as participants for the study.
The gut microbiome of Hmong and Karen peoples still living in Thailand were compared to the Hmong and Karen peoples who had immigrated to the United States. Immigrants, and they used native-born US residents as controls.
Karen refugees who relocated from Thailand to the US, and that gives them an opportunity to clearly track an immigrant's first six to nine months in the country.
Rapid-fire gut health degradation
The first thing researchers noticed was that major changes in bacteria happened fast. In the first six months, they found Western strain Bacteroides that replaced the non-Western bacteria strain Prevotella.
The United States, the less diverse microbiome became, the researchers discovered. This is not just the researchers, but also the communities being observed.
"Obesity was a concern for the Hmong and Karen Communities." In other studies, the microbiome has been related to obesity. These are vulnerable populations, so we definitely try to make them as safe as possible and make sure they have a stake in the research, "explained first author Pajau Vangay.
Knights pointed out that changes are sharper and more distinct in kids.
"… it was clear that the loss of diversity was compounded across generations, and that's something that has been seen before, but not in humans," he said.
The research did not establish a cause-and-effect between microbiome changes and immigrant obesity. However, there was a distinct correlation: the more westernized diet, the more westernized microbiome, and the higher the risk of obesity.
"When you move to a new country, you pick up a new microbiome, and that's not just what species of microbes you have, but also what enzymes they carry, which may affect what kinds of foods you can digest and how you interact. with your health, "Knights said.
"This may not be a bad thing, but we do not know that microbiology is badociated with obesity in immigrants, so it is possible for an interesting avenue for future research in the treatment of obesity. . "
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