Weight Loss Benefits of Rifaximin in an Intermittent Fasting Diet
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2022-01-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The epidemic of overweight and obese patients presents a major challenge in chronic disease
prevention and overall health across the world. Since the beginning of this century, it is
considered the third most important hazard attributable to burden of disease with
approximately 350 million obese people (BMI ≥30.0) and over 1 billion overweight people (BMI
≥ 25) in the world. Mechanistic studies have indicated that the microbiota influences energy
utilization from the diet and influences host genes that regulate energy expenditure and
storage. Thus, it is proposed that alterations in gut microbiota may play a significant role
in weight loss potential.
This study seeks to expand on this idea by evaluating whether the incorporation of Rifaximin
in an intermittent fasting (IF) diet plays a significant role in weight loss. Rifaximin is a
nonsystemic antibiotic that works primarily in the gut to inhibit bacterial growth. It
portrays unique eubiotic properties that induces a positive modulation of gut microbiota,
favoring the growth of bacteria beneficial to the host without altering overall composition.
Thus we propose an agent such as rifaximin would be essential in developing a positively
altered gut microbiome.
Based on studies evaluating Rifaximin's role in positive gut modification, we propose that
this can play a critical role in weight loss. Rifaximin may be associated with weight loss as
it exerts effects that increases the concentration of bacteria more prominent in lean
individuals. The choice of incorporating an intermittent fasting (IF) diet, stems from its
success in prior studies. By incorporating periods of voluntary abstinence from food and
drink, an IF diet has shown short term weight loss among overweight and obese people. We
propose that an IF diet with an antibiotic, like Rifaximin, will create more positive
alteration in gut microbiota that creates a greater potential for weight loss overall.
A group of subjects with BMI's ranging from 30-35 will be randomly selected and assigned to
an experimental and control group. Each subject will be given clear instructions on how to
follow a 14:10 intermittent fasting diet, in which they will fast for 14 hours and be able to
eat for 10 hours a day. Patients in the experiment group will additionally receive a
short-term low dosage of Rifaximin at the start of their diet. Patients will be evaluated
with weekly weigh-ins and basic blood work performed at the start and at the completion of
the study. The current hypothesis does not incorporate microbiome evaluation due to cost of
the kits and limited funding available for the study.