Effect of microecological preparation combined with an improved low-carbon diet on fat metabolism and intestinal barrier function in obese patients.

BACKGROUND: Although several studies have shown that improving the microecology of intestinal flora or eating a low-carb diet can reduce the incidence of obesity and its complications, the therapeutic effect of microflora alone on obesity is not significant, and the safety of simple low-carb diet is also quite controversial. Therefore, to find a more safe and effective way to lose weight has become a research hotspot in clinical nutrition and other related disciplines. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of microecological preparation combined with an improved low-carbon diet on fat metabolism and intestinal barrier function in obese patients. METHODS: A total of 75 adult patients with obesity admitted at Department of Nutrition and Health Management Center, Shenzhen Hospital, Southern Medical University, China from August 2017 to May 2019 were included in the trial. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups and received a microecological preparation combined with an improved low-carbon diet (n=25), an improved low-carbon diet (n=25), and a balanced diet (n=25). Another 25 healthy people with a balanced diet was recruited as healthy controls. The changes of body mass index, waist-tohip ratio, body fat, plasma lipids, incidence of fatty liver and their severity in each group were observed and compared. Meanwhile, the changes of intestinal barrier function indexes such as D-lactic acid, bacterial lipopolysaccharide and diamine oxidase were also monitored and compared before and after nutritional intervention in each group. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After 3 months of intervention with different nutritional methods, compared with those with improved low-carbon diet, the improvement of body mass index, body fat mass, blood lipid index, fatty liver grade and intestinal barrier function was more obvious in obese patients with combined diet (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01 ). Low-carb diet or in combination with intestinal microecological preparations could significantly reduce the serum levels of D-lactic acid, bacterial lipopolysaccharide and diamine oxidase in obese patients as compared with other diet schedules (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). To conclude, these findings indicate that intestinal microecological preparations combined with improved low-carbon diet with vitamins and minerals can effectively reduce the serum and intestinal damage indexes in obese patients. Compared with the low-carbon diet alone, this combined diet schedule can significantly reduce the body fat and blood lipid levels, alleviate the severity of fatty liver, and improve the intestinal barrier function in such patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]