A new study conducted by the Imperial College London reveals that urine can be used to identify whether a person is at risk for obesity and other diseases such as diabetes, stroke, cancer and heart disease.
Urine contains different chemicals called metabolites, produced from various biochemical processes in the body. According to the researchers, there is a metabolic signature that can be found in the urine of obese people. This signature can be used by scientists to pinpoint certain processes in the body that could be altered to mitigate the adverse effects of obesity on a person's health.
Scientists from Imperial College collected data from more than 2,000 people in the United Kingdom and the United States. They examined urine samples from the participants, gathered over two separate 24-hour period periods three weeks apart.
Body mass index (BMI) is used as an indicator of whether a person is obese or underweight by calculating the ratio between weight and height. The research team discovered 29 significant chemical markers in the urine samples that were connected to the BMI of the participants. These markers are the metabolic signature of obesity.
The researchers explained that 9 out of the 29 markers were compounds produced by bacteria in the stomach used to break down food. This discovery corresponds with earlier studies that point to the connection between bacteria and obesity. One of the markers was discovered to be an end product in a biological pathway connected to heart disease.
Other markers were found to be connected to the metabolism of muscles — lower levels of which are often seen in individuals with higher BMIs. The researchers believe that these results support the idea that exercise also has a controlling role in obesity, aside from a person's diet.
Dr. Paul Elliott, co-author of the study and head of Imperial College's epidemiology and biostatistics department, said the results of their study show the patterns of metabolic markers found in urine and how they are linked to obesity.
He added that even people who are not considered obese could benefit from preventive interventions by identifying their risk for developing obesity and metabolic diseases.
In 2014, the World Health Organization revealed that 13 percent of adults in the world were obese, while in 2013, around 42 million children under five years old were already considered overweight or obese.
This study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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