Statins may help fight obesity 'by destroying bad gut bacteria'

Statins may help fight obesity ‘by destroying bad gut bacteria linked to cardiovascular disease and bowel cancer’

  • Group of bad gut bacteria called Bact2 is more common in people with obesity 
  • However it was less common in obese people who were regularly taking statins 
  • Bact2 was found in 3.9% of lean individuals and 17.7% of obese people 

Statins may be able to reduce the amount of ‘bad’ gut bacteria found in obese people, according to a new study.   

Scientist found a colony of bacteria found in the gut called Bact2 is far more common in obese people.  

This collection of microbes is seen in just 3.9 per cent of lean individuals but is present in more than one in six obese people (17.7 per cent). 

However, just 5.9 per cent of obese people that take statins expressed the Bact2 colony.  

Previous research has found links connecting Bact2 to bowel disease. 

 Researchers from Belgium found statins destroy bad gut bacteria that fuel cardiovascular disease and bowel cancer and are often found in obese people (stock)

In an editorial piece, published in Nature, Dr Peter Libby from Harvard says: ‘More than 75 per cent of individuals who have inflammatory bowel disease have the Bact2 enterotype, whereas fewer than 15 per cent of people who do not have the disease harbour this enterotype.

‘Beyond the gut, many researchers have implicated gut microbes in obesity and the cluster of conditions referred to as metabolic syndrome. 

‘However, the nature of the relationship between microbes and these conditions remains under debate. Studies have also linked gut bacteria to cardiovascular disease.’ 

The findings, based on more than 3,500 people, offer hope of them being prescribed to boost the trillions of microbes that call our intestines home.  

Principal author Dr Sara Vieira-Silva, of VIB-KU Leuven in Belgium, said: ‘These results suggest statins could potentially modulate the harmful gut microbiota alterations sustaining inflammation in obesity.

‘Several interpretations of our results remain possible. On one hand, by appeasing gut inflammation, statin therapy might contribute to a less hostile gut environment, allowing the development of a healthy microbiota.

‘On the other hand, a direct impact of statins on bacterial growth has been previously demonstrated, which could possibly benefit non-inflammatory bacteria and underlie anti-inflammatory effects of statin therapy.’ 

The study initially assessed 888 lean and obese participants from France, Germany and Denmark and revealed Bact2 prevalence increased with BMI.

The same trend was observed among 2,350 Belgian people taking part in the VIB-KU Leuven Flemish Gut Flora Project and another 280 Europeans with heart disease.

Researchers found that Bact2 is associated with body mass index (BMI), increasing in prevalence from 3.9 per cent in lean individuals to 17.7 per cent in people with obesity (stock)

WHY ARE STATINS CONTROVERSIAL? 

Statins are the most commonly prescribed drug in the world and an estimated 30 per cent of all adults over the age of 40 are eligible to take them.

The cholesterol-lowering drugs are given to people believed to have a 10 per cent or higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease or having a heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years.

They are proven to help people who have suffered heart problems in the past, but experts say the thresholds may be too high, meaning benefits are outweighed by side effects for many people.

Nearly all men exceed the 10 per cent threshold by age 65, and all women do so by age 70 – regardless of their health.

Commonly reported side effects include headache, muscle pain and nausea, and statins can also increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hepatitis, pancreatitis and vision problems or memory loss.

Research published in the Pharmaceutical Journal last year found taking a daily statin for five years after a heart attack extends your life by just four days, new research reveals.

And Dr Rita Redberg, professor at the University of California, San Francisco told CNN in January that of 100 people taking statins for five years without having had a heart attack or stroke, ‘the best estimates are that one or two people will avoid a heart attack, and none will live longer, by taking statins.

Dr Vieira-Silva said: ‘We found systemic inflammation in participants carrying Bact2 to be higher than expected based on their BMI.

‘Even though this study design does not allow inferring causality, our analyses do suggest that gut bacteria play a role in the process of developing obesity-associated comorbidities by sustaining inflammation.

‘While these key findings confirmed our study hypothesis, the results we obtained when comparing statin-treated and untreated participants came as a total surprise.’  

Gut bacteria has been linked to most major diseases. 

For many years, dietary interventions such as pro and pre-biotics have been aimed at improving it.

But recently there has been increasing interest in using drugs to boost human microbiota.

Study leader Professor Jeroen Raes, also of VIB-KU Leuven, said: ‘The potential beneficial impact of statins on the gut microbiota opens novel perspectives in disease treatment, especially given the fact that we have associated Bact2 with several pathologies in which a role of the gut microbiota has been postulated.

‘Our results open a whole range of possibilities for novel, gut microbiota modulating drug development.’

He described the results published in Nature as ‘promising’ but accepts more research is needed as ’cause-and-effect’ has not been established.

Patients on statins might have adopted a radically healthy lifestyle after being diagnosed – which could have boosted their gut ecosystem.

Dr Libby, who was not involved in the research, praised the study, calling its methods ‘exhaustive’. 

He called the finding that statins are linked to lower expression of Bact2 surprising and unexpected.

Dr Libby, and the researchers who conducted the study, mention that it is now important to find out if the statins caused the drop in Bact2 levels.  

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