Healthy Gut

This page summarizes posts on interventions to promote gut health. This image was adapted from a review on the gut microbiome in irritable bowel disease. Most of these posts are password protected for a client. If you are not the client and would like to view them drop me a like at barb@bdlbiochem.com.

Clays and binders

  1. Sepiolite is a magnesium silicate that can bind to just about everything protein lipid, and carbohydrate. It binds DNA too. It’s relationship to talc makes it somewhat dubious.
  2. Buckminsterfullerene covers basic chemistry, changes in microbiome, and absorption and effect on the liver.
  3. Megalin and cubilin is about protein transporters in our kidneys for reabsorbing filtered albumin and other serum proteins also beinging in our intestinal epithelial cells.
  4. Zeolite sum is the goto list of chemical differences between types of zeolites
  5. Amine binding zeolites discusses binding of serotonin and histamine. The gut is a major source of serotonin/5-HT
  6. Clinoptilolite decreases tight junction protein ZO-1 in the feces of human endurance athletes.
  7. Clinoptilolite cont addresses a metabolomics study demonstrating changes in β-hydroxybutyrate and other metabolites that could be ligands for GPR109a.
  8. Klinobind zeolites is the summary of a Mexican paper looking at a Mexican zeolite taken before the first meal of the day to absorb toxins released into the bile in cigarette smokers. The enterohepatic circulation is also discussed.
  9. Clinoptilolite and T cells summarizes two divergent papers. One claims that silicates can activate the immune system. The other claims that clinoptilolite, a alimina silicate, can also activate the immune system.
  10. Philliposite clay had a small impact on the intestinal microbiome of these dogs eating an almost human diet. This clay seems to have reactive oxygen species scavenging abilities.
  11. Activated Carbon is a blog about a colonic delivery form of activated carbon, DAV132 that prevents oral antibiotics from messing with our intestinal microbiome.
  12. Fulvic acid makes a case for why we should not use zeolites bound with fulvic acid. Fulvic acid is both a pro-oxidant and an anti-oxidant. Fulvic acid might also aid in Cu absorption.
  13. Butyrate and clinoptilolite is a Chinese paper describing the production of pulverized and cleaned Chinese clinoptiloite and the subsequent loading with butyrate. The combo improves many aspects of small intestine health in broiler chicks.

Speeding up or slowing down intestinal transit

  1. Stool softeners is an incredibly short post that looks at Miralax, magnesium oside, and coconut oil. Coconut contains medium chain fatty acids like probably no other vegetable source of oil. GPR84, on immune cells and microglia, has some promise that needs to be investigated further.
  2. Miralax is antifreeze somehow was omitted in the summary figure. Miralax poses issues to the microbiome and has neurological side effects that may or may not be related to electrolyte imbalances and ethylene and other glycol contaminants.
  3. Culturing fecal bacteria is a story of how the community makeup can change with culture conditions. This has implications for us when it comes to short and rapid transit through different parts of our colons.

Fecal Microbe and Phage transplantation related stuff

  1. Bacteriophage therapy is about an easy way to isolate bacteriophage from feces of healthy donors and filtered free of intestinal bacteria. The thought had been to also use stomach protection technology for colonic delivery in an edible treat.
  2. Microbiome and Bipolar mentions one FMT case study but is really about a meta genomics, metabolomics, brain imaging companring normal and bipolar depression members of a Chinese group. It is not just one species of bacteria that is different. It is a whole consortium that changes and with it neuroactive small molecules in the plasma and brain connectvity. It is hard not to conclude that FMT is the only way to treat bipolar disorders.
  3. GI Biofilms may be induced by bile acids and their conjugate salts. They may also produce extracellular poly saccharide that are poinflammatory.

Short Chain Fatty Acids and their Receptors

  1. GPR41 and GPR43 is one of many posts describing G protein coupled receptors that bind free fatty acids, aka FFA3 and FFA2. Short Chain Fatty acids may increase barrier function in the GI tract. This review of the literature looks at early studies showing slight FFAR2 and FFAR3 response to acetate through valerate… GI barrier function in a cell culture model…. and some airway epithelial cell response in terms of making and releasing tissue plasminogen activator.
  2. GPR40 and GPR120 is mostly a gut story but also has implications medium chain fatty acids inhibiting and/or activating these receptors in the brain.
  3. Trivalerate is the first post to explore the role of this short chain triglyceride in fecal microbial transplants.
  4. Valerate Delivery totally ignores the triglceride aspect of delivery and focuses on binding to non-digestable carbohydrates. Discussion of transporters for valerate is also included.
  5. Valeric acid esters covers mono- and tri- valeric acids of glycerol that is available as a chicken feed supplement in Belgium and he Netherlands. This formulation increases GLP-2 release from enteroendocrine cells.
  6. GPR109a is the niacin and the butyrate receptor. This post attempt to tie back into clinoptilolite decreasing leaky gut in athletes. GPR109a is expressed in the gut and in the grain. Is this part of why butyrate is good for autistic kids and propionate is bad?
  7. Citrus pectin may be fermented by intestinal bacteria to short chain fatty acids, acetate, propionate, and butyrate. The orange peel post covers compounds in orange peel other than pectin.

Probiotics

  1. Terminal electron acceptor of Akkermansia mucinophila is a a remarkable colonizer of the intestinal layer of mucus. The review paper is about this bug switching to aerobic respiration via cytochrome bd. What the reviewed paper didn’t focus on was the massive jetison of asimmilatory sulfate reduction transcripts when going from anerobic to aerobic conditions. ASR is for the purpose of making cysteine instead of hydorgen sulfide.
  2. Pendulum Probiotics is about a mixture of probiotics that may be improving type 2 diabetes markers by increasing GLP-1 release from enteroendocrine L-cells. Clostridium butyricum converts bile acid CDCA to UDCA. CDCA normally inhibits transcription of GLO-1. My hypothesis is that one of the new additions to the probiotic mixture, Akkermansia mucinophila, does its thing by producing propionic acid.