Gut bacteria pill may reduce diabetes, heart disease risk: Study

A study in Nature Communications found that a single capsule of healthy gut bacteria helped obese adolescents reduce long-term risk of metabolic syndrome, a key driver of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, even without significant weight loss.

New Delhi: Intake of healthy gut bacteria in a pill form can act as a holy grail to tackle weight loss as well as metabolic syndrome that drives the risk of heart disease and diabetes, according to a study.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of five conditions — high blood pressure, high blood sugar, large waist circumference, high triglycerides (fat in the blood), and low HDL (‘good’) cholesterol.

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The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, showed that the transfer of healthy gut bacteria via a single capsule may bring significant health benefits.

A team of researchers from the University of Auckland included 87 obese adolescents to probe whether faecal transfer (taking ‘good’ gut bacteria from healthy donors and giving them in capsule form to people with a less healthy microbiome) would make a difference to their health and weight.

While the adolescents did not lose weight, they also did not put it on, said Professor Wayne Cutfield, from the University’s Liggins Institute.

More important was the impact on metabolic syndrome, Cutfield said. In particular, the overweight teenagers who received the transfer had reduced risk for a bunch of metabolic changes which can lead to heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, compared with the participants who received the placebo.

“More than one in three of the original teenage participants in our study had metabolic syndrome,” Cutfield said. “Metabolic syndrome has severe consequences, including a doubling in risk of death from heart disease or stroke and a five-fold increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

“What is impressive is that just a single FMT [faecal microbiota transplantation] treatment produced a dramatic reduction in metabolic syndrome that lasted at least four years. This means participants are at much lower risk of developing diabetes and heart disease over the long term,” the expert said.

Notably, after four years, the introduced healthy bacteria were still present and thriving in the guts of the participants who had taken the capsules, said Professor Justin O’Sullivan from the varsity.

“Imagine being able to programme your microbiome to reduce the risk of conditions before they occur. This work is paving the way for next-generation probiotics that target specific conditions through sustained changes to the microbiome,” O’Sullivan said.

“Our holy grail is to develop a super mix of bacteria that can be taken to prevent or moderate metabolic syndrome,” Cutfield said.