Deficient butyrate-producing capacity in the gut microbiome is associated with bacterial network disturbances and fatigue..., 2023, Guo,Lipkin et al

Jonathan Edwards said:
Maybe the cure for ME is eating pineapple for breakfast.
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Butter is high in butyrates, and while having a substantial intake of butter is a delicious experiment, I think I can safely say it doesn't fix ME/CFS.
From what I read, the butyrate molecules don't necessarily make it past the stomach. But, eating lots of fibre does feed the bacteria that make the butyrates in the intestines. I'm pretty sure I do better with a high fibre diet, but that might not have anything to do with ME/CFS, and it's certainly not curative.

In my googling I came across this idea:
One of the major benefits of butyrate for the gut is that it is the main source of fuel for the cells lining the colon, called colonocytes. Without it, these cells simply wouldn’t survive and the intestinal environment within which gut microbes thrive, wouldn’t exist.

That’s because colonocytes, when functioning effectively, keep the gut oxygen-free, providing the perfect environment for your gut microbes to flourish. Butyrate also regulates the natural movement of food through the gut and boosts blood flow to the colon.
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I hadn't heard about that before. I do wonder if some of the issues many people with ME/CFS have with eating, the post-prandial discomfort might be better with a higher-fibre diet. I think increasing my fibre intake helped my post-ME/CFS-onset digestive issues a lot.

I very much hope that your post @Jonathan Edwards does not mean that you are still suffering from the after-effects of a Covid infection.
 
Interesting study. I take Butyrate supplementation throughout the day as part of a comprehensive gastrointestinal management protocol devised by my doctor. It's just one of many things that has to be reintroduced to my gut to address the severe dybosis that was found following faecal testing.
 
livinglighter said:
I take Butyrate supplementation throughout the day as part of a comprehensive gastrointestinal management protocol devised by my doctor. It's just one of many things that has to be reintroduced to my gut to address the severe dybosis that was found following faecal testing.
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Livinglighter, do you have evidence that butyrate that you eat actually gets to the intestines? Genuine question, I haven't looked. Wouldn't it be better/cheaper to eat more fibre, to grow the bacteria populations that produce it in the intestines?
 
Hutan said:
Livinglighter, do you have evidence that butyrate that you eat actually gets to the intestines? Genuine question, I haven't looked. Wouldn't it be better/cheaper to eat more fibre, to grow the bacteria populations that produce it in the intestines?
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Good question. I have not yet seen the evidence that the butyrate I consume gets to my intestines and I haven't looked yet either. I pay my doctor a healthy sum to remove the legwork of looking for scientific evidence for me. I go in, as usual, to get tested and treated and evaluate what has been done to the satisfaction of my symptom reduction/cessation. Since receiving the protocol, the gastro symptoms I was aware of have stopped. I’m due some new set of tests to help determine if the improvements I've made align with improved markers I previously tested deficient in.

I couldn't confirm if solely changing diet will be enough to address getting enough butyrate. If there is an underlying biomedical disorder, IMO, dietary changes alone are sometimes not enough. I was found to have very bad small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. I took strong antibiotics to address it, so perhaps it depends on gut environment and nutritional deficiencies that will all need testing for.
 
Dug up my test result for this and what do you know... (having trouble shrinking the image)

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livinglighter said:
Good question. I have not yet seen the evidence that the butyrate I consume gets to my intestines and I haven't looked yet either. I pay my doctor a healthy sum to remove the legwork of looking for scientific evidence for me.
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I asked a gastroenterologist whether micro-encapsulated butyrate was worth taking and he didn't think there was evidence for its efficacy. I don't know what the trial literature looks like.
 
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Sasha said:
I asked a gastroenterologist whether it was micro-encapsulated butyrate was worth taking and he didn't think there was evidence for its efficacy. I don't know what the trial literature looks like.
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Ken Lassesen (CFS Remission.com) used to recommend Butyrate supplements. I never tried them at the time as it was in the days before Amazon and the only place you could order them was from a company in Japan. Ken has been able to put himself into remission a few times by doing a regimen of antibiotics, supplements, and fermented foods.
 
NIH Directors blog: More Clues into ME/CFS Discovered in Gut Microbiome

"As many as 2.5 million Americans live with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS for short. It’s a serious disease that can often arise after an infection, leaving people profoundly ill for decades with pain, cognitive difficulties, severe fatigue, and other debilitating symptoms.

Because ME/CFS has many possible causes, it doesn’t affect everybody in the same way. That’s made studying the disease especially challenging. But NIH is now supporting specialized research centers on ME/CFS in the hope that greater collaboration among scientists will cut through the biological complexity and reveal answers for people with ME/CFS and their families.

So, I’m pleased to share some progress on this research front from two NIH-funded ME/CFS Collaborative Research Centers. The findings, published in two papers from the latest issue of the journal Cell Host & Microbe, add further evidence connecting ME/CFS to distinctive disruptions in the trillions of microbes that naturally live in our gastrointestinal tracts, called the gut microbiome [1,2]."

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2023/02/14/more-clues-into-me-cfs-discovered-in-gut-microbiome/
 
Merged thread

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Has a Bacterial Signature
New studies find specific microbes are associated with ME/CFS.

KEY POINTS

    • Specific gut microbes are associated with ME/CFS.
    • The microbiota of ME/CFS patients is pro-inflammatory.
    • Chronic systemic inflammation may be at the root of ME/CFS.
“All disease begins in the gut” –Hippocrates

The microbiota is the community of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that calls the body home. The gut microbiota plays a pivotal role in health, and disruptions to it have been linked to a host of diseases, including myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic disease syndrome (ME/CFS).

ME/CFS has been treated with skepticism for a long time by the medical world. It is not new; Charles Darwin and Florence Nightingale are thought to have suffered from it. In the past, when large-scale outbreaks occurred, they were often attributed to mass hysteria by certain doctors. That is, until those doctors themselves became sick. Recently, it has been taken more seriously, although there are still doubters.

The causes have been hard to pin down, but a virus has always been a top suspect. However, several viral options have been tested and mostly rejected, including polio, Epstein-Barr, and XMRV.

Recently, two studies in Cell Host & Microbe found a bacterial linkage to ME/CFS.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...ic-fatigue-syndrome-has-a-bacterial-signature
 
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The article concludes as follows:


There are a few things that people with ME/CFS can do to improve their microbiota. These include:

  • Eat a healthy diet that is rich in fiber (prebiotics) and probiotics.
  • Get regular exercise.
  • Avoid antibiotics, if possible.
  • Get sufficient sleep on a regular basis.
Thanks, Psychology Today. I’d rather read up on ME biomarkers in the Wartcharmer’s Gazette.
 
I can't see this one posted above so adding it:

https://gut.bmj.com/content/71/3/544
"Gut microbiota dynamics in a prospective cohort of patients with post-acute COVID-19 syndrome"

It stood out to be because it replicates the pattern seen in a lot of the other studies in this thread:

"Butyrate-producing bacteria, including Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii showed the largest inverse correlations with PACS at 6 months."

They also used shotgun testing which Ken tells me is very accurate, whereas species level 16s isn't completely accurate according to Biomesight.

I've also noticed a massive impact in my PEM, energy envelope and fatigue levels with high butyrate levels vs low butyrate levels. Low for me is 30%, high for me is 70%. These are totally abstract scores from biomesight.com. However the species level is more accurate, 20% prausnitzii has a huge effect on fatigue (originally 2%), gnavus (unclear what a high a low value actually is), bromii 11% (originally 0 to 0.5%). Legumes appear to be the only way to push down bacteroidetes and increase firmicutes (specifically butyrate producers). Which correlates with the above scorings for butyrate and species level butyrate producers + lower gnavus against overall functional level and fatigue scores. Conversely bifido and lactobacilli levels don't have a huge effect on my function, but I do think they might help digestion.

I'm hoping there will be some more replicative studies next year. Also as I am paranoid about getting long covid ontop of ME, I test every month to try and fix my butyrate levels and butyrate producers.
 
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