Diet and gut microbiota, don’t let them break your heart!

Abstract

As rising obesity rates threaten to overwhelm healthcare services, physicians still lack efficacious therapies to halt the cardiovascular complications of the disease. The gut microbiota – a whole community of microorganisms that resides in our intestine – has recently emerged as major player in human health. Crucially, the gut microbes are extremely dependant on our dietary habits, and promote both health and disease. In obese patients, the gut microbiota is found to be profoundly altered, which is believed to promote disease complications including cardiovascular disorders. On the other hand, the preservation of a healthy gut microbiota has protective effects against obesity-related complications, which can be promoted by certain diets. Consequently, understanding the relationship between diet, the gut microbiota, and our body could help physicians to develop new strategies for preventing cardiac diseases in obese patients.