Before the popularity of yogurts, probiotic drinks or supplements, Dr. John Baker and his team observed a connection between the good bacteria living in your intestines and improved heart health. Dr. Baker and his team confirmed their observations in animal models over the past year.
Now, a CTSI Pilot Award is helping Dr. Baker’s team translate his findings to an adult, human population, studying the effects of intestinal probiotics and antibiotics in men with existing heart disease.
“We are finding with our current CTSI grant… that it is more than Leptin, the hormone we’ve been measuring that is having an effect on heart disease,… and we’ll find a lot more players,” said Dr. Baker. “The translational part, for us, is to be able to show that patients who have established, but stable coronary artery disease, with either the probiotic or the antibiotic, is going to be able to decrease risk factors for the progression of cardiovascular disease. We do get a consistent decrease in LDL cholesterol with probiotic. For a non-pharmacological treatment, we’re quite pleased with what we are seeing happen,” said Dr. Baker.
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