Researchers have discovered bacteria in the gut that may be having a significant effect on your body mass index (BMI) and cholesterol, which could help develop new therapies that prevent the development of cardiovascular diseases.
The bacteria form microbiome, a group of microorganisms that are important to many of its functions, which is also known as the body’s forgotten or extra organ. Recent studies have shown that microbiome plays a very important role in many functions of the body, including digestion and the immune system.
Data from the National Institutes of Health shows that our bodies contain ten times more microbial cells than human cells, but they only account for 1 to 3 percent of body mass index.
“As less than 30 percent of bacteria in the human gut have been cultured, we know very little about who they are and what they do,” Dr. Jingyuan FU, an associate professor of genetics at University Medical Center Groningen said in a press release. “With state-of-art deep sequencing technology, we are now able to identify them.”
The study involved studying the relationship between blood lipids levels and microbiome in 193 participants using data from Netherlands.
They discovered that 34 bacteria played a role in differences in body mass index and blood lipids such as high-density lipoproteins and triglycerides. The results of the study showed that bacteria played a significant role in the 4.6 percent difference in body fat, 4 percent different in HDL and 6 percent different in triglycerides.
The researchers hope they will identify the bacteria to help them develop the right treatments for heart diseases.
“Our study provides new evidence that microbes in the gut are strongly linked to the blood level of HDL and triglycerides and may be added as new risk factor for abnormal blood lipids, in addition to age, gender, BMI and genetics,” Fu said.
Source: UPI.com
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