4 Advice to Choose a butyric acid benefits

Butyric acid is a vital fatty acid produced when the good bacteria in the gut break down dietary fibre. It is naturally found in animal fats and vegetable oils, however, the quantity of butyric acid found in food sources is less compared to the amount produced in the gut.

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What is Butyric Acid?

Butyric acid is known as a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA), which is one among the three most common SCFA’s in the gut, along with acetic acid and propionic acid. These saturated fatty acids comprise about 90-95 % of the SCFAs in the gut that is produced when gut-friendly bacteria break down dietary fibre. Butyric acid is well-known to support digestive health, reduce inflammation and lowers the risk of diseases and promote overall health. It holds a significant role in providing colon cells with the needed energy to carry out its normal functions and also regulates blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It goes by other names such as butyrate and butanoic acid.

Incredible Health Benefits Of Butyric Acids

Fuels Gut

Butyric acid serves as a chief source of energy for colon cells, which make up the lining of the intestine. While most of the body cells utilise glucose as the main source of energy, the colon cells lining gut chiefly use butyrate, without butyrate these cells are unable to perform normal functions. The short-chain fatty acids offer an oxygen-free environment that supports the growth of gut microbes that controls inflammation and maintain gut cells healthy.

Also Read: Prebiotics: 5 Awesome Foods That Uphold Gut Health-Infographic

Potent Antioxidant Effects

Butyrate guards the cells against detrimental substances to keep gut healthy and disease-free. A colon is a storage place of the waster products. Higher levels of butyrate have shown to increase levels of glutathione, an antioxidants made in the system which neutralises free radicals in the gut. This improves the barrier function of the colonocytes and lowers the risk of bowel cancer, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Prevents Cancer

Regular intake of high fibre diet increases the amount of butyric acid produced in the gut which is well-known to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Studies have proven that butyric acid is a potential to prevent and treat colon cancer by blocking the growth of colorectal tumour cells. Moreover, it also leads to apoptosis that stops the growth of cancer cells completely.

Manages Diabetes

Studies show that butyrate stimulates the secretion of gut hormones such as glucagon –like-peptide -1(GLP-1) and peptide YY (PYY).GLP-1 hormones increase insulin secretion and lower the production of glucagon in the pancreas. While the PYY hormones promote the uptake of glucose in muscles and fatty tissue. Thus the presence of butyric acid increases the secretion of gut hormones that regulate type 2 diabetes and control weight

Boosts Brain Health

Butyric acid plays a key role in promoting neuroprotective effects that trigger brain and nervous system function. Butyrate targets several pathways linked with the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s stroke and autism. A diet abundant in butyric acid is an effective way to improve disease outcomes and uplift overall health.

Food Sources Rich In Butyric Acid

Generally, most of the butyric acid in the body is made from the gut bacteria. While some amount of butyric acid is also found naturally in food sources which include:

Ghee

Cow’s milk

Butter

Sheep’s milk

Breast milk

Parmesan cheese

Red meat

Vegetable oils

Sauerkraut

Butter is one of the richest sources of butyric acid. It is also available in the form of dietary supplement as sodium butyrate. However, increasing the intake of dietary fibre can also help to boost butyric acid level in the gut. The gut bacteria chiefly feed on resistant starches which the body can’t break down. Some of the good sources of resistant starches, pectin found in many fruits and inulin.

Also Read: Dietary Fibre And Its Role In Preventing Chronic Diseases

 Garlic

Onions

Asparagus

Potatoes

Bananas

Apples

Apricots

Carrots

Oat bran

Conclusion:

Butyric acid is one of the most beneficial short-chain fatty acids that play a key role in uplifting digestive health, reduces inflammation, protects the brain, manages weight and prevent cancer. The gut bacteria in the body make butyrate from the foods you can’t digest, which renders the body with a host of health benefits. Enriching your diet with fibre will help to elevate the butyric acid production by the gut flora.

Disclaimer:

The content provided here is for informational purposes only. This blog is not intended to substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider for any questions or concerns you may have regarding a medical condition. Reliance does not endorse or recommend any specific tests, physicians, procedures, opinions, or other information mentioned on the blog.

Explore this article

• Fatty Acids 101
• Butyrate and the Gut
• Butyrate and the Brain
• Butyrate and the Immune System
• How to Boost Your Butyrate
• Butyrate and COVID-19

Here’s a fact that reads like a riddle: Half of you isn’t you.

Fifty percent of the cells in your body are microbial, and they include fungi, protozoans, viruses, and bacteria. These microbes — known collectively as the micro­biome — significantly affect your digestion, immunity, mental health, and more.

Given their supporting role in so many key functions, it’s no surprise that you’re healthier when your microbes are well fed and happy. One way to ensure this is by consuming enough fiber. (See “6 Ways to Eat More Fiber” for ideas to help you amp up your fiber intake.

Fiber is food for gut microbes — and it prompts some of those microbes to produce an impor­tant short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) called butyrate.

Also known as butyric acid or butanoic acid, this SCFA contributes to an astonishing number of health benefits, including improved digestion, better detoxification, stronger overall immunity, and reduced risk of cancer.

Lackluster butyrate levels, on the other hand, can contribute to problems in all these areas. “If we don’t have good butyrate levels, then these critical functions are impaired,” explains functional-medicine physician Gregory Plotnikoff, MD.

Butyrate plays a role in so many bodily systems that diagnosing low levels of this molecule can be daunting. A stool test read by a healthcare practitioner trained to recognize optimal and suboptimal levels is the best way to learn if your butyrate production is flagging.

Test or no test, it’s worth doing what you can to boost butyrate on your own. “Butyrate has been overlooked for far too long,” Plotnikoff says. “It is a powerfully protective molecule that is in our power to activate and promote.”

Learn more about how this potent molecule works — and how you can help your body produce more of it.

Fatty Acids 101

You need fatty acids in your diet to support optimal brain and gut health. These molecules are the building blocks of fat — both the fat you eat and your adipose tissue. They consist of chains of carbon atoms with some hydrogen atoms attached, and they come in three sizes: short-chain, medium-chain, and long-chain.

Long-chain fatty acids are most common in animal foods and provide the essential omega-3 fatty acids in coldwater fish, eggs, walnuts, and chia seeds. Medium-chain fatty acids are found in coconut oil and milk fat, and they’ve enjoyed recent acclaim for their role in MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil — a key ingredient in Bulletproof coffee.

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Short-chain fatty acids are present in foods like butter and cheese, but our gut microbes typically produce most of the SCFAs the body needs. These endogenously produced SCFAs include butyrate, propionate, and acetate, which work ­together to keep the gut and immune system in working order.

The best way to boost the body’s butyrate production is by supplying the gut with plenty of dietary fiber. Gut microbes break down indigestible fiber and turn it into SCFAs, which are ultimately responsible for the many health benefits associated with fiber: regular bowel movements and overall colon health, right-sized LDL cholesterol levels, steady blood sugar, and stable body weight.

(Insoluble fiber, soluble fiber, and prebiotic fiber are all essential to our health and well-being. Here are “The 3 Types of Dietary Fiber You Need” and a list of what foods contain them).

Butyrate and the Gut

SCFAs also keep the cells that line the colon (called colonocytes) healthy, providing them with their main source of energy. Although butyrate is the least abundant SCFA the body produces, it has a big impact on gut health.

“Colonocytes seem to love chowing down on butyrate, so most of it is taken up by the gut lining, where it contributes to a healthy colon,” notes internal-medicine specialist and gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz, MD, MSCI, author of Fiber Fueled.

In a healthy gut, the walls of the large intestine are intact but reasonably permeable. They allow nutrients to enter the system while preventing the escape of bacteria, toxins, and food particles.

When intestinal walls are damaged, they become permeable and “leaky.”

A range of factors can produce this condition, including stress, a low-fiber diet, and food intolerances. A leaky gut usually leads to widespread gut inflammation, which can trigger gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and more. (See “What Is a Leaky Gut?” to learn more about this condition and for a list of telltale symptoms.)

Meanwhile, enhanced butyrate production can build a sturdier gut barrier. “Butyrate fixes up the lining of the gut, like taking a beautiful historic home that’s been run haggard and restoring it to its original glory,” Bulsiewicz explains.

Plotnikoff likens this relationship to the adage that good fences make good neighbors. “Our neighbors — our bacteria — are doing all the maintenance work on this fence that is the gut lining,” he notes. “If they’re not producing butyrate, then the fence is not being cared for, and it becomes rickety and wobbly. It’s not doing the job it needs to be doing.”

One way butyrate protects the gut lining is by keeping inflammation in check, a task that we sometimes outsource to steroids like prednisone, says Plotnikoff. But butyrate helps regulate inflammation without the side effects of these drugs. “It’s in our power to roll back inflammation or to prevent it from even starting when it’s not necessary,” he says.

Notably, research has found a link between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and a deficiency of butyrate-producing bacteria in the microbiome, as well as reduced microbial diversity. This may contribute to the overgrowth of an extra-nasty type of E. coli that often appears in the guts of people with IBD.

According to Bulsiewicz, this E. coli unleashes “pro-inflammatory proteins like a flamethrower as it proliferates, further enhancing dysbiosis and the rise of more E. coli.”

Butyrate helps arrest runaway inflammatory processes like these, and supplemental butyrate (in the form of capsules) is sometimes used to treat Crohn’s disease.

Butyrate and the Brain

We now know about the connection between the gut and the brain, so it’s not surprising that butyrate plays a role in cognitive health. Immune cells in the brain become prone to inflammation as we age, leading to impaired cognitive and motor function. The anti-inflammatory powers of butyrate help mitigate that damage.

Studies indicate that butyrate improves learning and memory in older mice. Animal studies also suggest that butyrate may aid in the fight against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Alzheimer’s is associated with an excess of a protein called beta-amyloid in the brain, where it forms masses called plaques. These may interfere with cell function and damage brain and motor function.

In a study, mice given sodium butyrate supplements experienced significant reduction in beta-amyloid as well as improved cognitive performance.

Other studies link high-fiber diets and better butyrate levels to improved outcomes among participants with a history of Huntington’s disease, autism, or stroke.

Butyrate has also been studied for its effects on depression and other mental-health conditions. A meta-analysis of 59 studies found that the gut microbiomes of patients with depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis and schizophrenia, and anxiety all showed reduced numbers of anti-inflammatory butyrate-producing bacteria and increased populations of pro-inflammatory bacteria.

Butyrate and the Immune System

Butyrate’s benefits extend beyond the gut and brain to influence your immunity. “Although it remains in the bowel, butyrate’s effects are systemic,” says functional-medicine practitioner Kara Parker, MD, ABIHM, IFMCP. “It’s what’s called an HDAC (histone deacetylase) inhibitor, which means that it goes systemically throughout the body and messages cancer cells to turn themselves off and die.”

The salutary role butyrate plays in the gut may even extend to the health of the lungs, via what’s now being called the “gut–lung axis.” One study found that children who lacked butyrate-producing flora were more likely to develop asthma and allergies, while children with robust butyrate production were substantially less likely to do so.

Researchers are still unclear about exactly how butyrate contributes to these effects, but it appears to be through regulating immune-cell behavior. In other words, there isn’t much butyrate won’t do to protect your health.

How to Boost Your Butyrate

If you’re eager to increase your own butyrate levels, here are several ways to start.

1. Eat more butyrate-containing foods. Some foods contain butyrate naturally. These include hard cheeses (think Parmesan and pecorino), butter, full-fat yogurt, and fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, pickles, and tempeh.

2. Eat more butyrogenic foods. Certain foods, especially those high in fiber, promote butyrate production in the gut: flax and chia seeds; beans and lentils; high-pectin fruits, such as apples and berries; and vegetables like garlic and onions.

Whole grains are also supportive, and resistant starch from green bananas and cold potatoes helps feed the microbes that make butyrate (for more on resistant starch, see “Resistant Starch for a Healthy Gut“). Parker recommends adding a table­spoon of potato starch to soups or smoothies.

3. Get enough sleep. Rest is a critical factor in butyrate production. “In deep sleep, you repair the gut,” explains Parker.

In turn, optimal butyrate levels also help support sleep. One animal study found that SCFAs send sleep signals to the brain, and that higher butyrate levels increase duration of deep, non-REM sleep.

4. Fast. According to Parker, a fast-mimicking diet (which involves fasting for 12 or more hours) may help raise butyrate levels. “When you stop putting the food in, you stop making the gut do the functions of digestion, and you allow it to switch to absorption and repairing the holes,” she explains. “This helps heal a leaky gut and helps grow more anti-inflammatory bacteria.” (For more on intermittent fasting, see “Everything You Need to Know About Intermittent Fasting“.)

5. Exercise. Studies show that exer­cise increases butyrate levels in the gut, perhaps because it encourages blood flow to the bowels, says Parker. She cautions against overdoing it, though, because stress can exacerbate gut permeability. “Marathon runners classically have breaches in their intestinal barrier,” she says.

Researchers are still seeking to define the line between exercise levels that improve gut health and stressful extremes that exacerbate permeability.

6. Mind your stress. When the body gets overly stressed for too long, cortisol levels rise, and the hormone is “an inflamer of dysbiosis and a suppressor of a healthy microbiome” that contributes to gut permeability, says Parker.  (Learn more about the importance of cortisol and how to manage your cortisol levels at “How to Balance Your Cortisol Levels Naturally.”)

7. Supplement. If you experience gut pain, constipation, or poor sleep, and you already eat a varied, fiber-rich diet, you may wish to work with a healthcare provider to try butyrate supplements.

This can be especially useful if you’ve just finished a course of antibiotics and are having a hard time getting your gut back on track. “For a week of normal antibiotics, it can take up to a year to rebalance the microbiome, so, you’re going to lose some of the players that make butyrate,” Parker explains.

She says most of us will regain those bacteria over time through diet, but sometimes the process is too slow. “If you have severe bowel symptoms — an inflammatory bowel, or acute GI distress — you might want to take some butyrate for a period of time to help reduce that.”

In these situations, Parker may prescribe sodium-butyrate or calcium-butyrate capsules. It is possible to get too much, so she recommends working with a functional-medicine provider to get the right dose.

Butyrate and COVID-19

Butyrate has been found to help reduce inflammation in the lungs as well as the gut, and researchers hope it may help manage complications from COVID. A study found that symptomatic COVID patients had lower levels of butyrate-producing gut bacteria, which may play a role in the presentation of gastrointestinal symptoms with COVID infection.

Functional-medicine physician Kara Parker, MD, ABIHM, IFMCP, points to a study of healthcare workers in six countries published in . Of the 568 who got COVID, she says, “those who self-reported that they had a plant-based diet [reduced their odds of severe symptoms] by 73 percent. All those plant-based foods are contributing to increased butyrate. And you just have less gut inflammation when you’re eating fewer inflammatory foods.”

More research is needed, yet there’s no downside to upping your intake of vegetables, fruits, and other fiber-rich plant foods. (Learn more about what foods are high in fiber at “The 3 Types of Dietary Fiber You Need“.)

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This article originally appeared as “The Little Molecule That Could” in the May issue of Experience Life.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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