抗生素與肥胖的關係

"A short-term disruption (by antibiotics) of the gut's microbes can have long-lasting effects on the microbiota's composition. Imagine a virgin rainforest, verdant (青翠嫩綠) and dense with life: insects rule the undergrowth and primates (靈長目動物) hoot (鳴叫) from the canopy (樹冠層). Now see the loggers (伐木工人) move in, chainsawing the forest's leafy infrastructure, established over millennia, and bulldozing (鏟平) the rest. Imagine too a weed invading, perhaps having hitchhiked (搭便車) as a seed on the wheels of the diggers, and then crowding out the natives as it takes hold. The forest will regrow, given time, but it will not be the same pristine (未觸動過的), complex, unspoilt habitat it was before. Diversity will drop. Sensitive species will die out. Invaders will flourish."

"Everybody knew that microbes living in the gut were eating the indigestible parts of the diet, but no one had ever looked into how this second round of digestion contributed to energy intake. With microbes helping them (us) to access more of the calories in their (our) diets, the mice (we) could get by on less food."

"Microbes, both viral and bacterial, are showing us that there is more to obesity than eating too much and moving too little. The energy each of us extracts from our food, and the way in which that energy is used and stored, is intricately (錯綜複雜地) linked with the particular community of microbes we host. If we really want to get to the heart of the obesity epidemic, we need to look inward to the microbiota and ask what we are doing to alter the dynamic that they established with the human body in its leanest, healthiest form."

Collen, A. (2015) 10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness. London: William Collins.