Jet lag affects gut microbes
Time-shifted bacteria make mice fat
Jet-lagged gut microbes may promote obesity and diabetes, a new study suggests. The findings indicate that gut microbes may be responsible for some of the health hazards of jet lag and shift work.
Gut microbe communities follow daily rhythms, changing composition and gene functions to a beat set by eating, researchers report in the Oct. 23 Cell. Jet lag or other glitches in the host’s biological rhythms throws the microbes out of sync, the researchers discovered in experiments with mice and people.