PRECISION MEDICINE: Testing on mice on high-fat diets showed that consuming the probiotic could curb weight gain by 20 to 30 percent and help prevent inflammation
Taipei Times
Date: Nov 28, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
Researchers yesterday said that they have identified a bacterium extracted from
From left, Chang Gung University professor Lai Hsin-chih, Ministry of Science and Technology Department of Life Sciences Director-General Chuang Woei-jer and Academia Sinica Institute of Biomedical Sciences postdoctoral fellow Wu Tsung-ju pose for a photograph at the ministry in Taipei yesterday.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Science and Technology
medicinal mushrooms that might help prevent diet-induced obesity and inflammation-related diseases.
The team led by Chang Gung University professor Lai Hsin-chih (賴信志) found that Parabacteroides goldsteinii, which exists in limited quantities in the human digestive track, proliferates in lingzhi mushrooms and Ophiocordyceps sinensis due to their polysaccharides, Lai told a news conference at the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taipei.
“I began to study Chinese herbal medicines about 10 years ago after I attended many seminars in Western countries and realized that it was an almost uncharted research territory,” Lai said.
The conditions of the gastrointestinal microbiome — the ensemble of microorganisms in the intestines — are related to metabolic disorders such as obesity, respiratory tract diseases and inflammation-related diseases such as dementia and depression, he said. [FULL STORY]
