New reports, one to be published tomorrow and one to be presented Sunday at the Digestive Disease Week (DDW) conference in Chicago, shed light on how gut bacteria impact health and medicine including heart disease and other illnesses.
Fluctuating Microbiome
A University of California – San Diego study to be presented Sunday will show that the balance of microbes in the human gut changes on an on-going basis. As a result, those fluctuations can take place from morning to night and dramatically from season to season.
“The seasonal variations we see in conditions like allergies or the flu occur in context of completely different microbiomes,” said Carolina Dantas Machado, PhD, the study’s lead author. “We may need to put our understanding of how seasons affect health and disease in context of a microbiome that is much more variable and dynamic than we have previously thought.”
The research was done in the laboratory of Dr. Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD, at University of California, San Diego
Microbes live in and on our bodies. In addition, they make-up about half of all human cells.
Market
Increased research and development of microbiome therapies make gut bacteria a growth market, according to a report from Market and Market. The human biome market will grow at a compound annual rate of 31.1 percent from this year to 2029, says the report.
Gut bacteria is a major driver in digestion and our immune systems. As a result, the study expects drug makers to be more involved.
Getting the Straight Poop
Researchers examined 20,000 stool samples worldwide between 2013 and 2019 to get their results. Accordingly, they discovered that about 60 percent of gut bacteria have a distinct 24-hour cycle. Furthermore, they discovered that seasonal changes were even more pronounced.
Dr. Zarrinpar and his colleagues think that diet and sleep impact fluctuations in gut bacteria.
“You can imagine that the gut environment is radically different in terms of nutrient and water availability and pH when the person is sleeping compared to right after they eat breakfast,” said Dr. Zarrinpar.
Gut Bacteria and the Heart
A separate review on the impact of gut bacteria on heart failure will be published tomorrow. Tuesday’s edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology will carry the piece. However, it appeared online last week.
Understanding more about gut bacteria could lead to better individualized treatment of heart failure.
“Over the past years we have gathered more understanding about how important the gut microbiome is in relation to how our bodies function overall and even though the cardiovascular system and the heart itself may appear to be quite distant from the gut, we know the gut microbiome affects the cardiovascular system and the physiology of heart failure,” lead author, Petra Mamic, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine, told Medscape.
The gut bacteria of heart failure patients is different from those of healthy patients, Dr Mamic notes.
Leading Cause of Death
Each year over 877,500 Americans die of heart disease or stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Consequently, that amounts to one-third of all deaths nationwide.
In addition, the CDC reports that heart disease and stroke cost the health system $216 billion per year.
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