Inflammatory bowel disease may be due to poor nutrition, which provokes the development of harmful bacteria, according to American scientists from the University of Chicago.
A study described in the journal Nature linked saturated fats and bacteria in the gut to the onset of inflammatory processes .
A high-fat diet changes the way food is digested , thus promoting harmful bacteria, microbiologists explain. According to them, the modification of intestinal bacteria can help treat the health problem.
Inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis , affect one in every 350 people in the UK. According to statistics, their frequency is constantly increasing.
For Bulgaria there are no exact data on the spread of diseases. It is estimated that about 1,000 Bulgarians suffer from Crohn's disease, with 4-5 new cases a year.
Inflammation of the intestines can cause severe abdominal pain and diarrhea .
The results of the present study show that high consumption of saturated milk fats, which are contained in many processed foods, increases the risk of developing colitis .
The more fat a food contains, the more bile acid is needed to absorb it. This changes the intestinal environment and leads to a change in the bacteria that grow in this area, the researchers explain. They identified the bacterium Bilophila wadsworthia associated with these processes.
The development of harmful bacteria can provoke the activation of the immune system and trigger disease in genetically predisposed people, explains Prof. Eugene Chang of the research team.
As a way to deal with the health problem, scientists recommend changing the microbial balance in the gut.