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New research shows that keeping your heart healthy might depend on what’s happening in your gut. Inside your digestive system live trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi, known as the gut microbiome, that influence far more than just digestion. These microscopic inhabitants play a surprisingly powerful role in protecting your heart and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Your gut microbes don’t just sit quietly in your intestines. They constantly interact with nearly every system in your body, including the ones that keep your heart beating strong. Through complex activity with your blood vessels, nervous system, hormones, and immune defenses, the gut microbiota acts like a behind-the-scenes conductor of cardiovascular health.
Made up of both friendly and harmful bacteria, this microbial community directly affects how your body absorbs nutrients and produces powerful compounds that either protect or endanger your heart.
In a revealing study, scientists collected stool samples from 14 patients with coronary artery disease and 28 people with healthy hearts. Rather than just cataloging which bacteria showed up, the team dove deeper, sequencing the microbes’ genes to uncover exactly what functions those bacteria were, or weren’t, performing in the body.
They found that people with clogged arteries harbor a strikingly different gut microbiome than those with healthy hearts. They have far fewer anti-inflammatory, heart-protective bacteria, and two key beneficial species are often dramatically depleted or even missing in patients with coronary artery disease.
This study adds powerful new evidence to a fast-growing body of research demanding we take the gut-heart axis seriously. In the near future, restoring missing beneficial bacteria or rebalancing the microbiome could become a routine part of preventing, and even treating, heart disease.
To view the original scientific study click below:
Metagenome-assembled genomes reveal microbial signatures and metabolic pathways linked to coronary artery disease
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The gut microbiome is the community of trillions of bacteria, fungi and viruses that primarily live in the colon. These tiny organisms help digest food while producing compounds that can influence many aspects of both physical and mental health. Researchers have uncovered a link between specific gut bacteria and biological aging, adding to growing evidence that the gut microbiome may affect how we age.