Remember to take your Bile Acids before you go to bed, Dear.

From NPR.org

Bile Acids?

For Metabolic Diseases, like Diabetes?

Maybe this ad from the 1940's wasn't to far off - touting the health benefit of bile-like ingredients.

And maybe someday taking a bile acid pill will be a pleasant reality for those suffering from T2DM, thanks to a recent "breakthrough" finding from Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden, and the University of Cincinnati.

As reported in the Journal Nature recently, in a study just concluded, found that metabolic surgery-induced (in this case Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy) elevation in bile acids in the blood, was the principal effect that causes such a rapid improvement in obesity-related Diabetes.

Not only is this interesting and exciting news unto itself, but it may shed some new light on an area that could be developed in the future as a pharmacological intervention, without surgery, to positively effect Diabetes.

The research led to pinpoint a receptor, named FXR, that is directly involved in bile acid signaling.
The study showed that signaling through FXR is essential for the metabolic effects of surgery to be achieved.

This was demonstrated by performing the equivalent of a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy on two sets of mice: those with the FXR receptor, and those who genetically were altered to not have the receptor.  The researchers observed that the operation produced weight loss and improved glucose metabolism in the mice with the FXR receptor, yet no effect n the mice that lacked FXR.

The study also showed that VSG produced changes in gut microflora, and that may or may not be working in concert with the FXR receptor to drive the beneficial metabolic results.  More study is needed to investigate those relationships.