Research
Mixed
Gut microbiome composition has little to no significant effect on LDL cholesterol or Total Cholesterol levels.
Focusing on gut health may not be the primary strategy for lowering LDL cholesterol. While it may help with triglycerides and HDL, LDL levels appear largely independent of microbiome composition in this study.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Strikingly, the microbiome had little effect on low-density lipoproteins or total cholesterol.
Why this rating
Large-scale human cohort with rigorous controls.
Source
The Gut Microbiome Contributes to a Substantial Proportion of the Variation in Blood Lipids
Jingyuan Fu et al. · Circulation Research · 2015
DOI 10.1161/circresaha.115.306807
cohort · n=893Cited 784×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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