Dietary Consumption of Live Microbes Improve Cardiovascular Health Risk in Adults

by | May 14, 2024 | 2024, Cardiovascular Health, Probiotics, Recent Articles

Written by Chrystal Moulton, Science Writer. Compared to the low dietary live microbe group, the medium and high group had significantly higher LE8 scores (P <0.0001).

cardiovascular healthCardiovascular disease is still in major cause of death in developed countries and a global health issue despite advances in treatment1. It is well understood that diet contributes to cardiovascular health and gut microbes can convert nutrients from food into metabolites which could support cardiovascular health2,3. Since gut microbiota has been implicated in various trials related to cardiovascular health4,5, new guidelines measuring cardiovascular health risk now includes ingestion of live benign cultures as part of a regular diet. This metric is referred to as Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) and was recently developed by the American Heart Association to include 2 components covering: diet, physical activity, sleep, and nicotine exposure along with BMI, blood lipids, blood pressure, and glucose levels6. In the current trial, researchers investigated the connection between consumption of dietary live microbes and cardiovascular health risk based on the Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) scoring metric7.

Researchers used information in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database for this study. Data from seven survey cycles between 2005 and 2018 was used. Among the datasets between 2005 and 2018, a total of 10,531 participants were included in this study. Information in the dataset included demographic data, dietary intake, physical activity, smoking, sleep, medication use, and history of diabetes. The dataset also included results from lab tests related to blood lipids, glucose, and glycated hemoglobin. Only participants with two days of dietary data were included in this study. Healthy Eating Index scores were also collected. Foods were categorized based on live microbe content into three groups: low (<104 CFUs/g), medium (<104 – 107 CFUs/g), and high (>107 CFUs/g). Subsequently, participants were categorized into three groups based on consumption of live microbes: low dietary live microbe group, medium dietary live microbe group, and high dietary live microbe group. Results were analyzed against confounders in three statistical models:

  • Model 1- adjusted for age, race/ ethnicity, education level, and gender.
  • Model 2- adjusted for contents in Model 1 and incorporated health insurance, marital status, alcohol consumption, and poverty income ratio (PIR).
  • Model 3- adjusted for contents in Model 1 and model 2 and included fat, protein, carbohydrate, fiber, and energy intake.

Initial analysis showed the participants were significantly different across all baseline characteristics except carbohydrate intake, and prevalence of hyperlipidemia and hypertension. The average age of participants included in this study was 47.59 years old. Participants were predominantly non-Hispanic white with college education or higher. Many of the participants were obese. Among them, 13.87% had diabetes, 8.81% CVD, 37.44% hypertension, and more than 70% hyperlipidemia. When analyzing the association between dietary live microbe intake and Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) metric, researchers found that compared to the low dietary live microbe group, the medium and high group had significantly higher LE8 scores (P <0.0001). Even after adjusting for confounders in the multivariate adjusted models [Models 1-3], beta-coefficients for the medium and high live microbe dietary groups were significantly higher compared to the low live microbe dietary group (P <0.0001). Furthermore, among participants with LE8 scores below 50 (or considered high cardiovascular health risk individuals), researchers assessed the association between the live microbe ingestion and the risk of cardiovascular disease. Crude data results show that individuals in the medium (OR = 0.58) and high (OR = 0.43) dietary live microbe group had significantly lower odds of increased cardiovascular risk compared to those in the low dietary live microbe group (P <0. 0001). Even after adjusting all confounders [Model 3], the odds ratio was significantly better in the medium (OR = 0.73) and high (OR = 0.65) group compared to the low dietary live microbe group (P <0.0001). Researchers conducted sensitivity analysis to verify the results of the study by removing individuals with cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes or any combination of these conditions. Sensitivity analysis also showed a significant positive correlation between moderate and high intake of dietary live microbes and LE8 scores (P <0.0001).

Overall, this analysis revealed that moderate to high consumption of live microbes could significantly improve an individual’s cardiovascular health. Some data within the study did show that these results could not be applied across all populations [please refer to original study for details]. Therefore, additional research will be needed to verify these results.

Source: Wang, Lin, Sutong Wang, Yongcheng Wang, Shuli Zong, Zhaoyu Li, Yuehua Jiang, and Xiao Li. “Association between dietary live microbe intake and Life’s Essential 8 in US adults: a cross-sectional study of NHANES 2005–2018.” Frontiers in Nutrition 11 (2024): 1340028.

© 2024 Wang, Wang, Wang, Zong, Li, Jiang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

Click here to read the full text study.

Posted May 14, 2024.

Chrystal Moulton BA, PMP, is a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. She graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology with a focus on premedical studies and is a licensed project manager. She currently resides in Indianapolis, IN.

References:

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