Breakthrough Study Links Gut Microbiome with Age, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Scientists have characterized the way age and metabolism can present in the microbiome. 

They then looked at the impacts these signatures had on cardiovascular disease risk. The researchers published their results in Nature Medicine. The microbiome affects cardiovascular disease risk by producing metabolites like TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide) and SCFAs (short-chain fatty acids), modulating inflammation and immune responses, influencing lipid and glucose metabolism, regulating blood pressure, and altering cholesterol absorption.

As we age, changes in our immune system, diet, lifestyle, and gut function alter the gut microbiome. This leads to fewer different types of bacteria and changes in how they work, affecting our overall health and risk of diseases. They discovered that the microbiomes of people they assigned to the metabolic multimorbidity clusters had certain overlapping characteristics. 

They also characterized the species that were found in the microbiome of younger people and older people. They then plotted the presence of 55 age-related microbial species against age to develop a gut microbial age metric, which they then validated using existing cross-sectional data from Israel, the Netherlands, France, Germany and the United Kingdom and United States. 

The study authors also pointed at microbial variation between individuals in different countries, and stated this could be an area for further research. 

The authors have argued this could mean the microbiome could be a target for cardiovascular disease prevention in older adults who are not metabolically healthy. The results of this study show a strong correlation between poor gut microbiome health and an increased risk of morbidity-related conditions like cardiovascular issues. This suggests that a healthy gut microbiome can help to limit the impacts of aging on the body, becoming even more important in helping people stay healthy as they age.

While there is some merit to the idea that microbiome health can correlate effectively with someone’s biological age, our gut microbiomes are also highly changeable through prebiotic and probiotic supplementation and potentially even more extreme measures like fecal transplantation. The findings of this research are backed up by evidence from other studies, which have shown that gut dysbiosis — imbalance of bacterial populations in the gut — is associated with a range of inflammatory conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematous, but also cardiovascular disease. 

There are also links between those conditions, including IBD, and cardiovascular disease. The authors of this study looked at heart attack, stroke, and death related to cardiovascular events, but other studies have linked gut dysbiosis to a range of cardiovascular risk factors, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.