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A comment on Brushing your teeth: no longer the best thing for your teeth?. Parent comment

Re:Brushing your teeth: no longer the best thing for your te... by tiatia on Sunday December 01, 2013 @12:38AM (#6826281)
"Your weight is determined" No. If at all, they are only a part of the problem and you have the chicken - egg problem. Do you have different bacteria because you are fat or are you fat because you have different bacteria?

Causes are: -genetic -epigenetic -life style -nutrition (cabrs!) -viruses (no kidding, obesity may be infectious) etc.

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Re:Brushing your teeth: no longer the best thing for your te... by drsingleton on Sunday December 01, 2013 @07:02PM (#6830160)
I think the jury is still out on that. Metagenomic studies have only become possible in the past decade, and consequently there haven't been any long tern studies in humans. Studies in mice have show that the normal microbiota is rather static throughout the full life of the host. If this extends to humans, then the microbes are the "egg" in the equation.
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