INTERESTING: Metformin’s Effect in Diabetes Linked to Gut Microbiota Changes.

The glucose-lowering effects of the first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, metformin, have long been thought to be mediated through effects on liver cells, but new research suggests the drug may also significantly affect the gut microbiota and that this may independently contribute to glucose control.

“These results suggest that oral metformin treatment regulates the gut microbiota and bile acid metabolism in individuals with type 2 diabetes,” the authors report in research published in Nature Medicine.

Although evidence links metformin’s effects to activity in hepatocytes, the oral drug reaches high concentrations in the small intestine. In a previous study, people who had undergone treatment with metformin were indeed found to have alterations in gut microbiota.

Gut bacteria seem to matter a lot.