For individuals without gastrointestinal disorders, gut health is rarely a priority. In fact, many overlook the health of their gastrointestinal system, especially when overshadowed by more pressing health issues concerning the brain, heart, liver, and kidneys. However, the importance of gut health cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts the health of all other systems and organs. Besides causing unpleasant symptoms on its own, gut dysfunction can contribute to nutritional imbalances or malnutrition, weakening the body’s ability to address other health issues and maintain normal life functions. There are also indications that gut health is a crucial component of brain health, due to the gut-brain axis, which significantly affects neurological, psychological, and behavioral functions.
Even for those actively interested in gastrointestinal well-being, many remain unsure about how to actively support gut health. Countless foods, vitamin supplements, beverages, and fitness guidelines claim to promote gut health, yet gastrointestinal symptoms and diseases are ubiquitous, leaving many patients uncertain about what truly helps.
Fundamentals of Maintaining Gut Health
The basics of maintaining gut health are widely recognized. Modern medicine emphasizes a good diet rich in fiber, preventive care like colonoscopies, and avoiding substances known to cause harm. However, supporting the gut microbiota allows patients to enhance gastrointestinal well-being rather than merely maintaining it. The gut microbiome comprises trillions of symbiotic and beneficial bacteria that help the gastrointestinal tract process nutrients. When the gut has a healthy microbiome, the tissues are typically quite healthy. Individuals with a healthy microbiome are less likely to experience leaky gut syndrome, have superior nutrient and water absorption, more regular bowel movements, and increased resistance to foodborne pathogens. Researchers also suspect that people with a healthy microbiome experience less stress and depression, due to the beneficial effects that gut microbiota can exert via the gut-brain axis.
Conversely, a dysbiotic microbiome is characteristic of many serious pathologies ranging from Crohn’s disease to autism spectrum disorder, leading to a wide array of unpleasant, distressing, and even dangerous symptoms.
Promoting a Healthy Microbiome
Increasingly, promoting a healthy microbiome is seen as an essential component of both therapeutic and preventive healthcare. While this is a new frontier in medicine, current evidence indicates that microbiome health improves with the consumption of substances that help the body regulate its gut immune system. Butyric acid plays a crucial role in this, providing the fuel needed for the microbiome to thrive.
Incorporating sources of butyric acid, such as fermented foods and certain fibers, can significantly support gut health and enhance overall well-being.
The Basics of Supporting the Microbiome
The gut microbiome plays a crucial role in processing the foods and beverages that enter the body. The effects of these processes are significant. For most people, diet is a major determinant of the microbiome’s composition. Daily consumption of foods favored by specific strains of the microbiome leads to greater representation of those bacterial species in the gut, while inadequate nutrient intake can diminish the health of certain species more than others. For example, a high intake of meat or cheese may promote bacteria known to cause colitis in immunocompromised individuals, while a large intake of vegetables may suppress those same bacteria and simultaneously reduce nutrient extraction from meat.
In general, beneficial bacteria thrive when individuals eat a healthy diet, while poor nutrition or malnutrition leads to the proliferation of harmful bacteria that may secrete pathogens. Regular alcohol consumption can also shape the microbiome, weakening bacterial colonies in the upper parts of the intestines, which are responsible for absorbing most of the body’s hydration. This can lead to mild dehydration further along the intestinal tract, negatively affecting gut motility and increasing the chances of constipation and discomfort.
The consumption of medications can also have profound effects on bacterial populations. Specifically, antibiotics are predictably destructive to the microbiome. While antibiotics are intended to eliminate harmful bacteria, the bacteria that need to be eradicated predominantly exist outside the gut. Unfortunately, oral antibiotics are not targeted, and treating an infected wound on the arm or leg exposes the entire system to antibiotics, causing collateral damage to the microbiome. As a result, many patients experience a range of unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms, which may include nausea and altered stool formation.
The Impact of NSAIDs on the Microbiome
Other medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), can also disrupt the microbiome due to their detrimental effects on the intestinal lining. Bacterial colonies attach to a healthy intestinal barrier when it secretes sufficient mucus. However, when an NSAID like ibuprofen causes intestinal cells to reduce their mucous secretion rate, the bacteria struggle to remain attached. As a result, these bacteria can slip away from the intestinal walls and are excreted with the stool, leaving the microbiome in poor condition. Given that most people consume NSAIDs at various points in their lives, the prevalence of untreated microbiome issues is likely quite high.
While taking medications that affect the microbiome is sometimes necessary, helping it recover is not usually a priority for patients or clinicians. Unfortunately, the depletion of the microbiome alone can mean that the gastrointestinal tract lacks one of its key defenses against pathogens. Regardless of the cause, a severely compromised microbiome also leads to increased intestinal permeability, allowing gastrointestinal pathogens to escape and wreak havoc elsewhere in the body. A weakened gut microbiome cannot effectively support the host by absorbing water and nutrients, nor can it help keep intestinal contents moving, which can lead to constipation, anemia, and discomfort. However, patients are not defenseless: increasing dietary fiber intake or critical chemical compounds that regulate the microbiome can help restore gut health much more rapidly than other types of diets.
The Relationship Between Dietary Fiber and Butyric Acid
The gut microbiome requires nutrients from a healthy diet to positively contribute to gut health, and fiber is the most critical dietary component regarding the gut microbiome. Fiber increases the rate of gastrointestinal transit and adds bulk to stool, thereby reducing the likelihood of constipation. Most importantly, when the microbiome encounters fiber, the bacteria consume it and secrete chemicals that the gastrointestinal cells can use for energy. One of the most important of these molecules is butyric acid.
Butyric acid is the preferred energy source for intestinal cells, accounting for up to 70% of the energy produced by these cells. It is crucial for both maintaining and rebuilding gut health. When the microbiome is disrupted by antibiotics, for example, consuming an external source of butyric acid has been shown to help restore the microbiome. Researchers believe that butyric acid can be beneficial in restoring balance to a microbiome altered by external factors. Additionally, butyric acid contributes to microbial health regardless of whether the microbiome has been recently affected.
This is because butyric acid acts as a signaling molecule, informing the gastrointestinal immune system that everything is functioning well. When immune cells encounter butyric acid in the gut, they are less likely to trigger inflammation and recruit other immune cells to do so. Consequently, consuming fiber indirectly leads to a gut with reduced inflammation and less threat to the immune system.
Importance of Controlling Inflammation
Managing inflammation in the gut is vital for long-term gut health and overall well-being. Inflammation decreases nutrient absorption effectiveness and can cause invisible blood loss due to damaged tissue. When blood loss and inflamed tissue occur together, poor gut health can often lead to anemia and dehydration, which have various physiological consequences. Furthermore, inflammation in the gut directly stimulates the gut-brain axis, sending discomfort signals to the brain. Once these signals reach the brain, they can contribute to anxiety and depression. With lower levels of inflammation in the gut, the gut-brain axis is only stimulated when there is a genuine issue that the brain needs to address, such as excretion.
Inflammation can also lead to scarring of the intestinal lining and significant discomfort. This happens when inflammation causes tissue swelling due to inflammatory molecules and plasma influx, stretching intestinal tissue and occasionally creating microscopic tears that are then repaired with scar tissue. Initially, these microscopic scars may go unnoticed. However, if the damage from inflammation occurs repeatedly, the accumulation of scar tissue can become so severe that it obstructs the entire intestinal tract. This can lead to life-threatening conditions, which are entirely preventable by keeping inflammation low through a steady supply of butyric acid and fiber. While such tissue accumulation may take years to become problematic, its correction often requires emergency surgery.
How to Improve Gut Health Long-Term
Maintaining a healthy gut is easier when it has the chemical tools needed to combat intense threats. In addition to promoting microbial health, butyrate can also help gastrointestinal cells protect the body from pathogens by increasing the metabolic rate of these cells. In a recent study, researchers exposed colon cells to butyrate and found that the cells exhibited 10% higher concentrations of cellular energy molecules compared to unexposed cells. This is critical in the context of the colon, as colon cells require large amounts of energy to move fecal material to the rectum. The effect was even greater when the cells were initially treated with a mild toxin derived from harmful bacteria. In cells treated with both the bacterial toxin and butyrate, the concentrations of energy molecules were 20% higher than in healthy control cells that were not exposed to butyrate or the toxin. Cells treated only with the toxin showed 6% fewer energy molecules.
While the concentrations of energy molecules are not a perfect predictor of cellular health, increased energy production in the face of a stressor like a bacterial toxin suggests a beneficial and adaptive response. Conversely, reduced energy production indicates serious problems. Instead of being inhibited by the presence of the toxin, cells with additional butyrate were able to accelerate their metabolic rate to handle the toxin while maintaining their normal activity levels—an optimal response to a pathogen. This means that promoting butyrate production in the microbiome will help gastrointestinal cells better cope with diets and other potentially harmful chronic effects.
Increasing Butyrate Concentrations in the Gut: The Key to Supporting and Improving Health
Most patients can promote the production and proper distribution of butyrate in their gastrointestinal tract by consuming dietary fibers from foods like lentils or oat bran, drinking enough water, avoiding alcohol, and minimizing the intake of microbiocidal medications to the bare minimum necessary for health maintenance. For patients experiencing chronic intestinal inflammation, working with their microbiome to increase butyrate production can be extremely beneficial for their long-term gastrointestinal health.
However, not all patients can tolerate the amounts of fiber that may be necessary for the production of sufficient butyrate to regulate their microbiological and intestinal cells. Fiber can lead to painful bowel movements, and increasing fiber intake often requires a period of adjustment before patients feel comfortable. While some people turn to encapsulated fiber supplements to carefully control their fiber intake, these supplements are rarely as effective as fibers derived from plant material, as their molecular structure tends to degrade significantly from stomach acids. Additionally, certain medical conditions are associated with depressed butyrate concentrations that may be difficult to address with increased fiber intake alone, regardless of the fiber source.
For patients with specific dietary needs or complex medical conditions, those intolerant to large volumes of fiber, or simply looking for an easy way to boost butyrate levels, a butyrate supplement may be the best option. However, not all supplements are created equal, and it’s important to choose products designed to optimize bioavailability and target the areas of the gut that need support, allowing for an immediate increase in gut butyrate levels. Thanks to advanced new drug delivery systems, butyrate can now be introduced into the gut easily, enabling patients to take control of their gut health every day.