COPENHAGEN (Dispatches) -- A new research shows the different ways that common medicines apparently affect gut bacteria.
A European research team consisting of scientists from France, Germany and Denmark reports that Gut bacteria are both positively and negatively influenced by common medicines.
Inside the gut live billions of health-promoting bacteria, collectively called the gut microbiome. They act like a giant chemical factory that produce a wealth of different substances that pass through the intestinal wall, enter into the blood circulation and from there affect the body’s cells in different ways.
The researchers found that a combination of two commonly used drugs -- diuretic tablets (so-called loop diuretics) and blood pressure medication (so-called beta-blockers) -- are associated with increased levels of health-promoting bacteria belonging to the bacterial genus Roseburia.
Also , they discovered that People with cardiovascular disease were more likely to harbor a healthier combination of various gut bacteria if they were also prescribed statins, a common class of drugs that lowers the level of harmful LDL cholesterol in the blood. A particularly interesting finding was that the combination of statins and heart magnyl was associated with lower levels of harmful fats in the blood.
Furthermore, they found that gastric acid medication, so-called proton pump inhibitors, are linked to adverse changes in the intestinal microbiome.