Cardiovascular Disease is a Potential Contraindication for Resistant Starch Type 2 Diet Intervention

Abstract

Research into the gut microbiome has identified a link between microbiome composition and individual health. In this study, we conduct statistical testing and analysis on data collected by Hughes et al., 2021, investigating the effect of a Resistant Starch Type 2 (RS2) based diet on cardiovascular disease (CVD) by altering the human gut microbiome. This data was adapted to select body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), and glucose levels as predictors for CVD since they have been shown to be correlated to CVD in past literature. Using the aforementioned CVD predictors to understand the interplay between CVD and gut microbiome composition, we binned participants into “Healthy” or “At Risk” groups to analyze if the two groups exhibited distinct microbiome composition. We employed alpha/beta analysis to investigate microbial diversity differences between the two groups but found no significant changes. Indicator species and core microbiome analysis revealed RS2 diet intervention results in distinct bacterial species between the “At Risk” and “Healthy" individuals after the diet intervention. The prevalence of harmful Eubacterium ventrosium as an indicator taxon for “At Risk” individuals upon undergoing the RS2 diet suggests that CVD may be a potential contraindication of the RS2 diet. DESeq supports this finding, showing the fluctuation of multiple genera associated with CVD risk. Overall, our study illustrates the intricate relationship between dietary intervention as a therapeutic approach and the risk of CVD.