Researchers have been experimenting with a drug which shows promise to being able to provide new treatments for diabetes and obesity. This drug is being used to target certain intestinal bacteria in the guts of mice. The mice were fed a diet containing a very large amount of fat and given tempol. Tempol is an anti-oxidant drug and the mice that received it were significantly less obese than those that did not receive the drug.(news.psu) The drug was found to reduce some forms of bacteria in the guts of the mice. When the levels of this particular bacteria decreased the levels of a bile acid increased. This bile acid regulates the metabolism of bile acids, fats and glucose in the body.(news.psu) They also found that the mice given the drug had lower blood glucose and insulin levels.  The scientists also tested this on mice that lacked the bacteria which the drug removed and found that those mice had the same results showing that it was the particular bacteria that affected the weight gain. So the key to controlling obesity could be located in the gut.

There are many different ways that people are attempting to control weight gain. If this proves to be effective in people it could affect many peoples lives. This drug if proved to be safe and effective for people could allow people to prevent weight gain and control certain weight related diseases. There are some questions about this drug and the reaction that it has in the mice which it has been used on. As with every experiment the results could be due entirely to chance and this drug may not actually be capable of producing weight controlling results. The results could also be due to a third unknown variable affecting the mice. Both of these outcomes are unlikely however if the experiments were performed correctly which seems like the likely case. The impact of a third variable seems very unlikely in this situation because the experiment was done with control groups and carried out in a scientific manner. There is also the question about if this drug would work in people. There is a chance that the drug would not be able to effect people in the same way as it did to the mice in the experiment.

Sources:http://news.psu.edu/story/288862/2013/09/24/research/adjusting-bacteria-intestines-may-lead-obesity-treatments
Image Source: http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/Scitech/660/371/Generic%20lab%20mouse%20AP%20640.jpg?ve=1