Kombucha Tea Linked to Reduced Triglyceride Levels

When an obese person has too many triglycerides stored within their body, it increases their risk for chronic disease which includes cardiovascular diseases like stroke, atherosclerosis and heart failure.  High triglyceride levels within the body are linked to a heightened risk for inflammation within the pancreas which increases the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. 

Previous research shows that healthy lifestyle changes like exercising, losing weight and limiting alcohol use along with consuming a healthy diet which is high in fibre and healthy fat help lower triglyceride levels. A new study says that drinking kombucha tea might assist in reducing fat accumulation and lower triglyceride levels. 

According to PLOS Genetics, it is important to discover new ways for people to reduce fat accumulation since modern diseases including diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease are major contributors to death. These diseases fall into the category of metabolic syndromes which might be associated with dysregulation of lipid homeostasis resulting in high plasma triglycerides. Functional foods might directly improve lipid homeostasis during metabolic disease which serves as a supplement to traditional therapeutic approaches.  

Kombucha tea is a potential way of lowering triglyceride levels. Deriving its roots in Eastern traditional medicine, this tea has seen a steady resurgence in popularity due to its prevalence in the beverage retail space. kombucha is a fermented drink made from black tea and a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. This addition of bacteria and yeast makes it a probiotic beverage. Previous animal studies suggest that kombucha might help treat diseases like diabetes, liver disease and gut health. This tea might assist with different aspects of cardiovascular health like lowering cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. In previous studies, some people have experienced side effects when drinking kombucha including heightened heartbeat or heartburn due to additional caffeine. One study also suggested that kombucha consumption might have cardiotoxic effects. 

Researchers have based their study on worm models which consume bacteria as their primary food source. This allows people to directly study the relationship between host and probiotic microbes found in kombucha tea within genetically tractable model systems. Scientists found that after ingesting kombucha tea microbes from the tea colonized the worm’s intestines making metabolic changes like those that occur during fasting. 

It was surprising to find that probiotic microbes within kombucha tea colonized the worm gut and stimulated a fasting-like metabolic response within the host which occurs even though the animals show no defects within intestinal nutrient absorption. The response was only seen within animals consuming microbes isolated from a long-term fully fermented kombucha tea culture and not a simple mix of non- fermenting kombucha-associated microbes.  

It was seen that animals ingesting a diet including probiotic microbes found in kombucha tea experienced a reduction in fat accumulation and a lowering of triglyceride levels. Kombucha also interacts with diabetes medicines and can have low glycemic and low blood glucose effects depending on the ingredients.