There are millions and millions of people in America on type 2 diabetes drugs right now.
Many of them believe the drugs are the only thing that will help them finally get their diabetes under control.
But the truth is, the health of a patient’s gut microbiome may have the biggest influence on the success of those drugs compared to any other factor.
At least that’s what researchers at the Wake Forest School Of Medicine believe.
The team, led by head researcher Hariom Yadav, Ph.D. had previously identified a relationship between an imbalance of probiotics and the formation of type 2 diabetes.
This is part of what led them to investigate how the health of the gut microbiome may influence the expression of type 2 diabetes.
Another factor that led them to investigate the effect of the gut microbiome on the efficacy of diabetes drugs was how some drugs worked when administered intravenously but not when supplemented with orally.
Yadav wrote in their write up they published in The Lancet:
“For example…certain drugs work fine when given intravenously and go directly to the circulation, but when they are taken orally and pass through the gut, they don’t work.”
“Conversely,” he continues, “metformin, a commonly used anti-diabetes drug, works best when given orally but does not work when given through an IV.”
Their conclusions were based on the meta-analysis of over 100 different studies.
They focused their research on observing how the health of the microbiome either boosted or inhibited the effectiveness of the drugs. They found when a person’s gut microbiome was modulated it gave drugs the ability to “boost, change, or reverse the efficacy of drugs for type 2 diabetes.”
Yadav summed up their findings p by saying:
“We believe that differences in an individual’s microbiome help explain why drugs will show a 90 or 50 percent optimum efficacy, but never 100 percent.”
“Our review showed that the metabolic capacity of a patient’s microbiome could influence the absorption and function of these drugs by making them pharmacologically active, inactive, or even toxic.”
This study further enforces a growing scientific consensus on the gut microbiome: That it is essential for the health and well being of individuals and should be protected and made well in an effort to boost health.
