Have you ever wondered why you feel full or hungry? What mechanism is used by our body? There are various hormones produced in our body that drive different biological functions including our mood, stress, sexual activity & obviously our hunger responses. The most important ones from a metabolic health perspective are Ghrelin (Hunger hormone) & Leptin (Hunger suppressing hormone). You may be surprised to learn that decision on how much each of these should be produced rests on our gut microbiome.
The essential building blocks we need for our body remains the same. Each individual needs Vitamins, Minerals, Protein, Carbs & Fats to make all components of all the cells to keep us healthy. It is important to note that it doesn’t mean that a particular food which is healthy for your spouse or friend would be healthy for you as well. Therefore the form- food we eat, these nutrients take to enter our body may differ from one person to another. Within our gut, our cells are in favor of small fat molecules- Short Chain Fatty Acids( Butyrate, Acetate & Propionate) that easily pass through intestinal membrane & convert to fast energy perfect for them. One of the most important & favored Short Chain Fatty Acids (food) of our intestinal cells is Butyrate. Benefits of Butyrate extends to anti-inflammatory properties & boosting metabolic effects. Although we can find these short chain fatty acids in our food, our intestinal cells need constant & consistent access to maintain our health through the day. It is not so easy to get Butyrate from the food we eat until we have Butyrate producing microbes in our gut.
The major source of Butyrate is plant fibre & our intestinal cells undertake a fermentation process to produce Butyrate. While our digestive system is well equipped to break down food into small pieces, it cannot digest every food we eat. The foods which our digestive system find hard to digest are fermented or metabolised by our bug friends living in our gut. Our gut has the perfect environment & ecosystem for butyrate producing bacteria to thrive (provided our gut is not imbalanced) who eat this difficult to digest fibre & convert them into these beneficial short chain fatty acids.
Without having active butyrate producing bacteria, potential for butyrate would be lost & these foods would pass through our system without extracting the healthy benefits from them. The impact of this function can bring a far reaching impact on the health of our gut. Without butyrate, our intestinal cells may starve & die, causing holes in our thin gut lining in our digestive tract. Our digestive tract is only made of a single layer of endothelial cells. It can be easily broken down, allowing particles, bacteria, and toxic compounds to leak out of the gut and into the rest of the body.
When microbes living in our gut work in harmony with each other, it brings a symbiosis & is referred to as a mutually beneficial relationship between two microorganisms working in close association. Inside our body symbiosis & harmonious relationship between our gut & us- helps our body reap maximum health benefits. They get a safe & secure place to colonize-inside our gut & thrive in a nutrient rich environment, To return the favor, they help us digest provide our body essential nutrients such as butyrate to help us grow & thrive As we support & feed commensal & beneficial microbes inside our gut with the right foods, they protect us against pathogens competing for space which if acquired can cause havoc in our body & trigger body wide inflammation & circulatory toxins in our bloodstream. This give & take symbiotic relationship protects us in various ways.
Therefore this symbiosis is so vital to maintain. Without this symbiotic connection, our relationship with microbes may turn detrimental to our health. When this balance is disrupted, these microbes within themselves start working against each other & pathogenic bacteria( even commensal microbes can work against our health) can dominate the gut landscape & overrun the beneficial microbes that work in favor of our health.
If your gut microbiome balance is out of balance, it can trigger inflammation & your body gives you indication that something wrong is happening inside your body through various symptoms such as bloating, constipation, fatigue or abdominal pain. If left unchecked, this dysregulation can have far reaching consequences & make you develop chronic diseases. There are numerous research which have proved that inflammation triggered by imbalance in gut can spread to different parts of our body & even brain which can lead to heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, digestive issues & even mental health issues. Therefore by promoting symbiotic relationship between us & microbes, we can promote a healthy environment inside our body where every single microbe can live together in harmony.
How can you increase the production of Butyrate? By optimizing & improving the abundance of butyrate producing microbes. Although there are various butyrate supplements on the market, they don’t make sure that these supplements can go past the acidic environment of the stomach.
By consuming high-fiber foods, you’re infusing fibers inside your body that are difficult to digest but easily fermented by beneficial microbes that can readily convert it into SCFAs like butyrate. Feeding more of these folks can help you increase the production of Butyrate. However if you do not have gut producing microbes enough, you can reintroduce them after killing the pathogenic folks, who are preventing them to grow, through mix of prebiotics & probiotics that agrees with your unique biology.
When we decode your unique biology & activities of microbes living inside of your gut, we can tell you what your butyrate production is. If your butyrate production is low, we can tell you specific modification in your dietary choices that marries your unique biology that can improve butyrate score. If you are experiencing any of symptoms such as bloating, constipation, Nasal Inflammation or even gaining weight, probably your gut microbiome is imbalanced & you do not have right number of butyrate producing bacteria in your gut. Decode your unique biology with us to learn your current state of gut dysbiosis & how low your butyrate production is & what dietary shifts can help you bring that harmony & balance in your gut. More details here.
Sources: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00277/full
https://jme.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/jme/64/1/JME-19-0132.xml
Hey there jᥙst wanted to give you a quiⅽk heads up and let yоu know a fеw of the images aren’t loading properly.
I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issᥙe.
I’ve trіed it in two different internet browsers and both show the same results.