It seems like almost everyone these days has some kind of digestive issue, and there are a few key reasons why this is happening.
Reasons for Increased Digestive Issues
- Poor Diet Choices: Our modern diets are loaded with processed foods, refined sugars, and unhealthy fats. These foods are hard on our digestive systems, lacking the nutrients our bodies need and filled with additives and preservatives that disrupt gut health. This imbalance can lead to malabsorption, bloating, constipation, weight gain, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, insulin resistance, gut inflammation, and brain fog.
- High Stress Levels: Stress has become a constant companion for many of us. Chronic stress can wreak havoc on our digestive systems, leading to issues like acid reflux, IBS, and even ulcers. When we’re stressed, our bodies produce more cortisol, which can negatively impact our gut health.
- Lack of Fiber: Many people don’t get enough fiber in their diets. Fiber is essential for healthy digestion, helping to keep things moving smoothly through the digestive tract and feeding the beneficial bacteria in our guts.
- Overuse of Antibiotics: While antibiotics are necessary for fighting infections, their overuse can destroy not only the harmful bacteria but also the good bacteria in our gut. This imbalance can lead to digestive issues like yeast overgrowth, leaky gut syndrome, and a weakened immune system.
- Sedentary Lifestyles: We’re not moving as much as we used to. Physical activity is crucial for good digestion as it helps stimulate the muscles in the digestive tract. A lack of exercise can lead to sluggish digestion and constipation.
- Dehydration: Many people don’t drink enough water throughout the day. Proper hydration is essential for digestion as it helps break down food and absorb nutrients. Dehydration can lead to constipation and other digestive problems.
- Environmental Toxins: Our environment is filled with toxins that can affect our digestive health. Pesticides, chemicals, and pollutants can disrupt the balance of our gut microbiome, leading to various digestive issues.
- Food Intolerances and Allergies: There’s been a rise in food intolerances and allergies, with many people reacting to gluten, dairy, and other common foods. These reactions can cause inflammation and digestive discomfort.
- Insufficient Sleep: Not getting enough quality sleep can affect our digestion. During sleep, our bodies repair and regenerate, including our digestive system. Lack of sleep can lead to an imbalance in gut bacteria and digestive issues.
- Sulfur Foods: Exposure to glyphosate and other toxins has disrupted our ability to detoxify sulfur, making sulfur-rich foods like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, onions, garlic, and egg yolks burdensome. This can cause liver congestion, indigestion, and leaky gut.
- Oxalates: Foods like spinach, almonds, peanuts, kale, and berries are high in oxalates, which can lead to hypothyroidism, urogenital problems, nerve issues, immune system problems, and digestive issues. This forms a vicious cycle with gut-related complications.
- Amyloids: Amyloid proteins can’t be broken down into usable amino acids, strengthening gut pathogens and contributing to bad bacteria overgrowth, digestive issues, and leaky gut.
- Mold: Mold in certain foods triggers a cascade effect, creating oxalates, strengthening biofilm formation, reactivating viruses, and increasing the burden of toxins. This vicious cycle severely affects digestion.
- Excessive Fat: Struggling to metabolize fats, especially inflammatory ones like canola, peanut, grapeseed, soybean, corn, and safflower oil, worsens gut issues, causing leaky gut and inflammation throughout the digestive system.
- Dietary Toxins: Toxins in food and water, including GMOs, glyphosate, and dioxins from industrial farming, burden the liver, disrupt digestion, and clog iodine receptor sites in cells.
- Radiation: Non-ionizing and ionizing radiation can cause insulin resistance, poor digestion, and leaky gut, impacting the nervous, endocrine, and hormonal systems while increasing oxidative stress and free radical damage.
- Heavy Metals: Mercury, lead, and aluminum from food, water, and the environment disrupt digestion, leading to gastrointestinal, neurological, cardiovascular, kidney, liver, respiratory, bone, infertility, and immune issues.
- Spike Protein: The spike protein disrupts liver and gut function, causing insulin dysregulation, fluid retention, inflammation, infertility, vasoconstriction, and hormone imbalances.
- Infections: Bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections can disrupt gut flora balance, leading to gastroenteritis and symptoms like diarrhea and cramps.
- Medications: Certain medications, including antibiotics and NSAIDs, can affect the gut lining and microbiome, causing disruptions.
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): Chronic inflammatory diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis impact gut health, causing significant digestive problems.
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS): This functional disorder involves abdominal pain, bloating, and changes in bowel habits, often triggered by diet and stress.
- Dysbiosis: An imbalance in the gut microbiota due to factors like antibiotics or a poor diet can lead to digestive problems.
- Autoimmune Disorders: Autoimmune conditions such as celiac disease or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis can impact gut health.
- Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD): Stomach acid flowing back into the esophagus causes heartburn and digestive symptoms.
- Alcohol and Tobacco: Excessive alcohol consumption and smoking can harm the digestive system.
- Obesity: Being overweight or obese increases the risk of gut-related issues like indigestion, fatty liver disease, and GERD.
- Aging: The aging process can lead to changes in the digestive system, resulting in constipation or decreased nutrient absorption.
- Genetics: Some gut issues may have a genetic component, making certain individuals more susceptible to conditions like indigestion, IBD, or celiac disease.
Butyrate and How It Helps Your Digestion
It’s no secret that the health world has been obsessed with probiotics for over a decade now. Tons of research and investment have gone into developing and testing different strains, all to understand how they transform our microbiome and impact the crucial gut ecosystem.
Next up in popularity are prebiotics. We’ve discovered that certain foods and compounds can help probiotics do their jobs even better. So, what exactly are those jobs? Probiotics produce postbiotics, the newest “biotic” on the scene. And guess what? Postbiotics might just be the most revolutionary for our health and wellbeing. Butyrate is a postbiotic for your gut.
Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that plays a crucial role in maintaining gut health. It’s produced when the beneficial bacteria in your gut ferment dietary fiber. Think of it as a superfood for your gut lining.
Butyrate is a powerhouse for gut health, playing a crucial role in keeping your digestive system in top shape. Here’s why it’s so beneficial:
- Fuel the Gut Lining Butyrate is a crucial short-chain fatty acid produced in your gut when you eat foods high in resistant starch. Special cells in your gut, known as colonocytes, rely on butyrate as their primary fuel source. These cells form the lining of your colon, helping your body absorb nutrients and protect against harmful bacteria, yeast, and other pathogens. If you don’t consume enough resistant starch, your gut bacteria won’t produce enough butyrate, and your gut lining can suffer. By gradually increasing your intake of prebiotic dietary fiber or supplementing with butyrate, you can nourish your gut lining, restore healthy nutrient absorption, and more. We dive deeper into butyrate and diet here.
- Support Healthy Gut Permeability Your gut lining acts as the gatekeeper of your large intestine. A healthy gut lining allows essential vitamins and minerals to pass through to your bloodstream while blocking toxins and pathogens. Without enough butyrate, the gut lining can become compromised, leading to what’s commonly known as leaky gut syndrome. This can cause symptoms like gastrointestinal distress and low energy levels. By keeping the gut lining healthy, butyrate may help heal leaky gut
- Enhances Mucus Layers: Butyrate is key in maintaining the mucus layers, which are vital for a healthy gut.
- Promotes Microbiome Diversity: It encourages a diverse and balanced microbiome.
- Regulates Oxygen Levels: Keeps the oxygen content in the colon low, which is crucial for gut health.
- Stabilizes Mast Cells and Modulates Histamine: Helps control histamine levels and stabilize mast cells.
- Improves Metabolic Health: In mice, it has been shown to enhance insulin sensitivity, increase mitochondrial density, and improve satiety after eating.
- Promote a Healthy Inflammation Response in the Gut Your gut lining also plays a crucial role in managing inflammation. When your immune system fights off germs, it produces free radicals, which are oxidized, inflammatory substances. Some inflammation is necessary to protect the gut, but chronic inflammation can cause oxidative damage and health issues. Butyrate helps prevent excessive inflammation by increasing the production of the antioxidant glutathione.
- Combat Chronic Inflammation, Colonic Diseases, and Cancers Chronic gut inflammation can lead to diseases like IBD (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) and colorectal cancer. By neutralizing free radicals, butyrate reduces the risk of developing chronic diseases and may help manage existing gastrointestinal issues. It has therapeutic potential for IBD patients, particularly in immunomodulation and mucosal healing, which is promising given the global rise in IBD cases.
- Promote Healthy Blood Sugar Levels Studies on mice and cells show that butyrate positively affects blood sugar balance. It may increase insulin sensitivity, help the body use stored fat for energy, and suppress hunger hormones. These effects suggest that increasing butyrate levels in the gut might encourage weight loss and reduce weight gain in diet-induced obesity.
- Support Healthy Yeast Levels Research indicates that sodium butyrate has significant antifungal activity against pathogenic yeasts like Candida albicans. It can inhibit yeast spread and decrease the production of protective biofilms, making them easier to eradicate. Sodium butyrate also enhances the effectiveness of antifungal drugs, suggesting it could be a complementary therapy with medications like azole drugs.
- Promote Cell Differentiation Butyrate helps cells differentiate into specific types, like liver or blood cells. Proper cell differentiation is crucial to prevent tumor formation and cancer. Butyrate also induces cell apoptosis, the natural death of cells, preventing serious complications.
- Regulate the Immune System Butyrate influences most immune cells, which have receptors to detect it throughout the body. Research shows that butyrate upregulates anti-inflammatory immune pathways and downregulates inflammatory ones, even when triggered by allergens or toxins. In the gut, butyrate modulates the gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT), which determine immune response intensity based on the gut’s microbial balance.
- Combat Brain Fog and Improve Sleep Butyrate plays a key role in the gut-brain connection. It increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), supporting learning and memory. Butyrate also helps reduce brain fog by sequestering ammonia, a toxic byproduct. Additionally, a study on mice showed that butyrate increased non-rapid eye movement sleep by 70% and decreased sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep).
- Support Healthy Blood Pressure Butyrate levels correspond inversely to blood pressure. Increasing butyrate production in the microbiome may help regulate blood pressure, as shown in studies with both humans and rats. For instance, higher butyrate levels have been associated with lower blood pressure in obese pregnant women.
- Detoxification: It aids in detoxifying your body by maintaining proper pH levels in the colon and promoting the elimination of toxins. This is crucial for overall digestive health and reducing the burden on your liver.
- Constipation Relief: Butyrate improves bowel movements and can be particularly helpful in relieving constipation. It helps regulate the gut microbiota, promoting a balance of beneficial bacteria that supports regularity.
- DNA Protection: Butyrate supports healthy DNA function, which is essential for protecting your cells against damage that could lead to diseases, including cancer.
- Protects Against Alcohol Damage: Shields the gut from alcohol-induced leaky gut and inflammation.
How is Butyrate Produced in the Body?
We get butyrate, along with other short-chain fatty acids, by consuming foods high in resistant starch. Resistant starch is a type of starch that resists digestion, meaning it passes through your digestive system intact.
Once resistant starch reaches the colon, the beneficial bacteria there feed on it, producing butyrate. This butyrate then provides vital energy to the cells lining the colon walls, known as colonocytes.
There are four types of resistant starch:
- RS Type 1: Found in the fibrous cell walls of plants, making it physically inaccessible. This type is present in seeds, nuts, grains, and legumes.
- RS Type 2: High in amylose and indigestible when raw. Examples include raw potatoes, unripe bananas, and plantains.
- RS Type 3: Known as retrograde starch, it forms when foods like white potatoes and white rice are cooked and then cooled. If these foods are reheated to a temperature lower than 130°F, they maintain their resistant properties.
- RS Type 4: This is a synthetic type of resistant starch and is not recommended for consumption.
Who’s Most Likely to Have Low Butyrate?
If you’ve ever taken antibiotics, you’re at high risk for low Butyrate. A recent study in mice showed that antibiotics reduced short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), allowing Candida Albicans to thrive.
In humans, low or altered SCFA levels are common among those with:
- Crohn’s disease
- Ulcerative colitis
- IBS-Constipation
- IBS-diarrhea
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Type 1 diabetes
- Parkinson’s disease
- Obesity
- Allergies in children
With new studies emerging regularly, it’s likely that disrupted butyrate production is linked to every chronic disease we examine.
How Do I Ensure Healthy Butyrate Levels?
Current testing technology for butyrate is not perfect. The best approach is to use a “proxy” by running multiple microbiome stool tests in the same month to check for enough SCFA producers.
Given the conditions already linked to disrupted butyrate production, and the growing list, it’s clear that maintaining high butyrate levels is crucial for everyone.
To have good butyrate levels, you need two things:
- The right microbiome species that produce butyrate through prebiotic fermentation.
- Sufficient prebiotics or fibers for these species to ferment.
If your diet lacks the right microbiome species or enough prebiotics, your butyrate production is likely already compromised. So, focus on feeding your gut the right foods to support butyrate production!
The Role of Fiber and Resistant Starch in Butyrate Production
Diets like Paleo, low carb, and Keto can often be low in fiber and resistant starch, leading to insufficient butyrate levels if not properly managed. In order to consume sufficient butyrate through diet, it’s essential to consume 9-12 cups of phytonutrient and fiber-rich plant foods daily. This includes green plantains, green bananas, sunchokes, artichokes, and cooked and cooled potatoes to ensure adequate butyrate production. Most people won’t do this on a daily basis and there may be negative side effects to some of these foods as well.
Nine cups of vegetables provide roughly 72 grams of fiber, crucial for butyrate synthesis. However, the health of your microbiome also plays a significant role. For your body to synthesize butyrate effectively, a high intake of dietary fiber and resistant starch is essential, along with a rich population of probiotic bacteria in the colon. These bacteria ferment the fiber, turning it into butyrate, acetate, and propionate, all important short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
Various factors impact butyrate production, including the state of your microbiome, the effects of drugs, alcohol, and other lifestyle choices. Most people are suffering from Leaky Gut due to chronic overeating of processed, nutrient-poor foods high in fat and sugar, leading to compromised gut health and impaired butyrate production. A nutrient-dense diet filled with high-quality animal protein and colorful, fiber-rich foods can significantly enhance gut health and butyrate production.
Should You Boost Your Butyrate Levels with These Foods?
If you want to naturally increase your butyrate levels, you are told to focus on eating more high-fiber foods, especially those rich in resistant starch. Here are some options you are told to used:
- Cold rolled oats
- Legumes
- Potatoes (cooked, then cooled)
- White rice (cooked, then cooled for at least 24 hours)
- Underripe bananas
- Plantain flour
- Whole grains
- Fibrous plant parts like asparagus ends, broccoli stems, and apple skins
However, if you have followed my food recommendations outlined in the Accelerated Food Guide, you will notice that many of the foods listed above contain sulfur, histamines, lectins, or oxalates that may backfire on your system. It makes consuming butyrate through food more difficult. This is why many people find supplementing with butyrate easier and more effective.
The Benefits of Butyrate Supplementation
Most people are deficient in butyrate due to the modern diet and lifestyle, and, as mentioned above, increasing butyrate through diet can become problematic as those foods that increase butyrate may cause negative side effects like gut issues, inflammation, hypothyroidism and more.
Supplementing with butyrate can support a healthy inflammatory response in the gut, improve gut integrity, regulate the immune system, stabilize mood, and enhance the gut-brain axis. Supporting your body with butyrate through supplementation can be beneficial, ensuring your gut health is at its best.
Below are my favorite supplements to support butyrate for a better digestive system.
BodyBio Butyrate
BodyBio Butyrate comes in two unique formulations: Calcium/Magnesium Butyrate and Sodium Butyrate.
The main difference between the two is the minerals used to create the butyrate salt: one combines sodium with butyric acid, while the other combines calcium and magnesium with butyric acid. Beyond that, they both deliver the same health benefits.
Butyrate, produced by your gut microbes, is a powerhouse for your body. It’s crucial for digestive health, brain health, and protection against disease.
Healthy Gut Tributyrin X
Factor #1: Type of Supplemental Butyrate
Butyrate is a delicate and notoriously smelly molecule. In the early days of butyrate supplements, the solution was to bond butyric acid with a salt to stabilize it. These early versions have shown positive benefits at lower dosages, but higher dosages tend to be problematic.
Then came Tributyrin, a newer form of butyrate. This version binds butyrate to fat, making it more tolerable and effective at higher dosages. Plus, it naturally releases over time, unlike the early forms that are quickly absorbed.
However, Tributyrin has its own set of challenges: it’s a liquid, it’s fragile, and it retains that characteristic smell.
Factor #2: Type of Butyrate Enteric (Intestinal) Delivery
To ensure Tributyrin works effectively in the body, it needs protection from stomach acid, which can break it down prematurely. Various enteric delivery methods have been developed to address this.
- Drying Tributyrin Liquid into a Powder with Carrier Agents: Brands using this method include CyLoc™, DexKey™, and CoreBiome™. Unfortunately, this process introduces many unwanted drying additives.
- Liposomal Protection: Products like Sunbutyrate™ use this novel method to keep the molecule more pure, potent, and in liquid form. However, this approach requires masking the flavor and smell and relies on the intestine to break it down properly.
This is where Tributyrin-X™ stands out. It’s 99.9% pure liquid Tributyrin encapsulated in a patent-pending softgel called PXRcap™. This innovative softgel keeps the Tributyrin in its pure, unprocessed state, locks in the smell, and studies show it has zero leakage in stomach acid tests.
Our approach eliminates the smell and additives while providing powerful protection from the stomach. Plus, it’s easy to swallow and convenient to take anywhere.
What to Expect When Taking Butyrate Supplements
0-2 Weeks
When you start taking butyrate, your colonocytes (gut cells) get a much-needed energy boost. Some people notice a difference as early as the first day, while others see improvements in their digestive health within the first week or so. As butyrate levels build up, you’ll notice more positive changes in digestion and gut health.
2-4 Weeks
Your digestive function continues to get better. Leaky gut begins to heal, healthy gut flora reestablishes, and blood sugar levels become more stable. You’ll also experience more regular bowel movements with well-formed stools.
4 Weeks and Beyond
Over time, butyrate helps build a healthier gut structure, boosting your immune system, reducing systemic inflammation in the gut, banishing brain fog, aiding in weight regulation, and enhancing your overall health.
Sara Banta
Sara Banta is a Stanford University Graduate with a Degree in Economics and Psychology, and a certified Natural Supplement Expert & Graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Sara is the Founder of Accelerated Health Products and host of the health & wellness podcast, Accelerated Health Radio.
