A new study published in Science Translational Medicine reports that the urine of obese people has a different chemical makeup than the urine of healthy-weight people. The findings of this study may be used to help develop new treatments for the ailments that accompany obesity like type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular problems, gout, and arthritis.

The group of researchers behind the analyzed urine samples from over two thousand men and women of all weights to determine if there are chemical markers in urine that correlate with weight. They discovered that the levels 29 different chemicals rose and fell along with patients’ weights.

These chemicals, called metabolites, are the natural byproducts of bodily processes. By studying these metabolites, the researchers were able to discover specific areas of the body that act differently in obese people. “Our findings reveal multiple connections between many metabolic compartments and pathways and provide possible starting points for new approaches to prevention and treatment,” wrote the study’s authors.

One affected area was the microbiome of bacteria in the gut, whose link to obesity has been studied before. The skeletal muscles of obese people were found to work differently than those of healthy-weight people.

All of the ways in which the metabolite content of obese people’s urine differs from the norm have been mapped out to create a “metabolic signature” for obesity that might in the future illuminate ways to prevent obese people from developing some of the problems that their condition causes. These treatments would address the specific bodily processes highlighted by the metabolic signature to treat patients without necessarily making them lose weight.