By Haruna Gimba
Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine said that research has demonstrates that intermittent fasting can reduce hypertension by reshaping the gut microbiota.
Health Reporters gathered that the researchers have used animal model for the study.
Led by Dr. David J. Durgan, the Houston, Texas-based researchers note that emerging evidence suggests that disruption of the gut microbiota, known as gut dysbiosis, can have adverse effects on blood pressure.
“Previous studies from our lab have shown that the composition of the gut microbiota in animal models of hypertension, such as the SHRSP (spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat) model, is different from that in animals with normal blood pressure,” said Durgan, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Baylor.
The researchers also have shown that transplanting dysbiotic gut microbiota from a hypertensive animal into a normotensive (having a healthy blood pressure) one results in the recipient developing high blood pressure.
“This result told us that gut dysbiosis is not just a consequence of hypertension, but is actually involved in causing it,” Durgan said.
He said the ground work led to the current study in which they proposed to answer two questions. “First, can we manipulate the dysbiotic microbiota to either prevent or relieve hypertension? Second, how are the gut microbes influencing the animal’s blood pressure?”
To answer the first question, Durgan and his colleagues drew on previous research showing that fasting was both one of the major drivers of the composition of the gut microbiota and a promoter of beneficial cardiovascular effects. These studies, however, had not provided evidence connecting the microbiota and blood pressure.
Working with the SHRSP model of spontaneous hypertension and normal rats, the researchers set up two groups. One group had SHRSP and normal rats that were fed every other day, while the other group, called control, had SHRSP and normal rats with unrestricted food availability.
Nine weeks after the experiment began; the researchers observed that, as expected, the rats in the SHRSP control had higher blood pressure when compared to the normal control rats.
Interestingly, in the group that fasted every other day, the SHRSP rats had significantly reduced blood pressure when compared with the SHRSP rats that had not fasted.
“Next, we investigated whether the microbiota was involved in the reduction of blood pressure we observed in the SHRSP rats that had fasted,” Durgan said.
The researchers said that the study is important to understand that fasting can have its effects on the host through microbiota manipulation.
“This is an attractive idea because it can potentially have clinical applications. Many of the bacteria in the gut microbiota are involved in the production of compounds that have been shown to have beneficial effects as they make it into the circulation and contribute to the regulation of the host’s physiology.
“Fasting schedules could one day help regulate the activity of gut microbial populations to naturally provide health benefits,” Durgan said.
