Fasting Reduces Blood Pressure, Restructures Gut Microbiome, Study Finds

A study conducted by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine has found that intermittent fasting (“IF”) has the potential to decrease hypertension by restructuring gut microbiome. Hypertension increases an individual’s risk for getting a stroke or cardiovascular ailments, which are the major causes of death within the United States.

The objective of the team of researchers who conducted the study was to learn more about hypertension and, more specifically, about the evidence that suggested that blood pressure could increase if gut microbiota is disrupted in a process called gut dysbiosis.

The team included Baylor professor of anesthesiology Dr. David Durgan, who explained that prior studies had demonstrated that, in comparison with the gut microbiota makeup in animals with normal blood pressure, the composition of gut microbiota in animal high blood pressure models, such as the spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat model (“SHRSP”), was different.

The researchers also demonstrated that transferring dysbiotic gut microbiome extracted from an animal that has high blood pressure into an animal that had a normal blood pressure made the recipient develop hypertension. Durgan noted that this finding demonstrated that gut dysbiosis wasn’t only a result of hypertension but also part of its cause.

This led the researchers to begin their study, which focused on how gut microbiota affected the model’s blood pressure and whether dysbiotic microbes could be manipulated in order to relieve or prevent hypertension.

For their study, the scientists classified their models into two groups: the control group, which had normal SHRSP rats whose access to food wasn’t restricted, and the other group, comprising of normal and SHRSP rats, who alternated between fasting and eating. The researchers were basing this on prior research that had demonstrated that fasting was a primary driver of gut microbiota composition. It should be noted that this research had not provided evidence that connected blood pressure with the microbiota.

Researchers noticed that the control group rats had higher blood pressure in comparison with the rats that fasted. The researchers noted that the latter group’s blood pressure had reduced significantly when compared to the control group rats.

With regard to the regulation of blood pressure by gut microbiota, the researchers found out that when compared to animals with a healthy blood pressure, animals from the control group had lower bile acids circulating in their gut.

Collectively, the research demonstrated that intermittent fasting could be beneficial as it decreased hypertension by restructuring gut microbiota composition in animal models. This study offers evidence that gut dysbiosis alters bile acid signaling, which contributes to high blood pressure.

The findings of this research could go a long way in stemming the tide of hypertension across the globe in a similar way to the likely impact of the work of entities such as XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE: XPHY) (OTCQB: XPHYF) (FSE: 4XT), which is devoting massive amounts of resources to coming up with novel diagnostics for infectious diseases (Covid-19, for example). Better diagnostics mean faster commencement of treatment as well as a reduced likelihood of rapid spread.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE: XPHY) (OTCQB: XPHYF) (FSE: 4XT) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/XPHYF

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