Obesity (Photo : Reuters/Charles Platiau )
According to a study conducted by the Imperial College London, pee can be used to determine whether an individual is at risk for obesity and other diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes, News Every Day reported.
.
Urine contains different chemicals known as metabolites that come from several biochemical processes in the body. Scientists said that there is a metabolic signature that can be found in the urine of obese people. They can use this metabolic signature to identify specific processes in the body that could be changed to reduce the harmful effects of obesity on an individual's health.
In the study, researchers analyzed urine samples from more than 2,000 individuals in the United States and the United Kingdom. They found 29 chemical markers in the pee samples that were connected to the body mass index (BMI) of the subjects. These significant chemical markers are the metabolic signature of obesity.
According to the National Heart Foundation, BMI is used to give people an idea of whether they are ideal weight, overweight or underweight for their height.
Scientists said that 9 out of the 29 markers were compounds produced by bacteria that reside in the gut. This finding agrees with previous studies that point to the connection between obesity and bacteria.
Researchers also found other markers that were connected to the metabolism of muscles, lower levels of which are frequently observed in people with higher BMIs. They believe that these results show that exercise plays a controlling role in obesity.
According to researchers, the findings may help them identify individuals who have a metabolic signature for obesity but are not overweight. Scientists said that ways could be found to prevent such people from developing obesity as welll as other metabolic diseases.
