Gut microbes produce small molecules with big impacts.

The Power of Short-Chain Fatty Acids: How Our Gut Microbes Can Heal and Prevent Disease

Introduction

Join us as we explore the latest developments on the medical frontier and how they are transforming our approaches to illness. In this series, we’ll share new strategies to heal and prevent disease.

The Importance of Short-Chain Fatty Acids

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) are essential to our health and play several critical roles in the body. They are anti-inflammatory, which means they cool the fire of inflammation that our body uses to burn off pathogenic invaders. Unfortunately, this inflammation function is widely dysfunctional in modern people, because of constant triggering by stress, environmental toxins, and processed foods.

Regulating this immune response is just one of the jobs that SCFAs do for us. They also work to prevent and regulate several diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, heart and liver disease, obesity, cancers, psychiatric disorders, arthritis, neurodegenerative diseases, gut disorders, periodontal disease, and more. To do their jobs effectively, we need to feed them well.

Eating for Trillions—Prebiotics and Probiotics

Our microbes want prebiotics—plant-based fiber. It keeps them healthy and nurtures the kind of community that can produce plenty of SCFAs and ward off invasions of pathogenic microbes. If that community is damaged, for example, from a round of antibiotics, we can also add new microbiota to our gut by eating probiotics. These are foods that contain live beneficial bacteria—fermented foods.

Nurturing these microbes can be the difference between health and disease.

“They are guardians of our health, and we need to be protective of them. Their ecosystem is so sensitive,” Dr. William Li, renowned physician, scientist, and author of “Eat to Beat Your Diet,” told The Epoch Times.

“If we feed our gut bacteria damaging substances like excess sugar or salt, ultra-processed food, chemical synthetic preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, they can be effectively poisoned. Then, the bacteria don’t cooperate and behave as they should, harmful bacteria can grow, and the entire ecosystem is disrupted. Inflammation will rise.”

Short-Chain Fatty Acids and the Gut Microbiome

Our gut microbes create three main metabolites (that we know of), the short-chain fatty acids known as acetate, butyrate, and propionate. This trio indirectly reduces appetite, limits food intake, and regulates blood glucose. Acetate, the most abundant short-chain fatty acid, nurtures the growth of other beneficial bacteria and plays vital roles in cellular metabolism, including supporting insulin sensitivity and body weight control.

Our hunger and digestion go awry when we don’t have the microbes we need to produce sufficient SCFAs. Not surprisingly, obesity is associated with a low level of short-chain fatty acids, which are considered a biomarker of a healthy microbiome, according to Leigh A. Frame, associate director of the George Washington University Resiliency & Well-Being Center and a nutrition and microbiome expert.

Eat More Fiber

The single most important way to ensure your gut is making adequate short-chain fatty acids is to eat sufficient fiber. The Western diet is problematic because it’s high in saturated fat and sugar and low in fiber. Most people worldwide consume less than 20 grams of dietary fiber per day, according to a 2019 review in The Lancet. The article said 25 to 29 grams of fiber daily is adequate, while more than 30 grams per day confer additional benefits.

Fiber also speeds up food transit time in the colon and decreases pH, a measurement of acidity versus alkalinity. A lower pH is ideal in the gut because it’s associated with inhibiting pathogen growth and increasing short-chain fatty acid production.

Profile of a Top Bug

Faecalibacterium prausnitzii bacteria make up 5 to 15 percent of most people’s total microbiome. It’s the main producer of butyrate, a critically important short-chain fatty acid that helps regulate the immune system with strong anti-inflammatory compounds.

Butyrate fuels intestinal cells. It reduces gastrointestinal inflammation, stabilizes intestinal permeability, supports healthy mucus production for the gut lining, and improves colon motility. Additionally, it plays a role in mood regulation and insulin sensitivity, as well as having anti-cancer effects.

Declines in F. prausnitzii numbers have been associated with autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and psoriasis, as well as in chronic illnesses such as Type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Short-Chain Fatty Acids and the Brain

The clear link between microbiota deficits and neurological conditions reveals the interdependence of the gut and brain. Short-chain fatty acids could play a key part in gut-brain signaling related to neurodevelopmental disorders as well as neurodegenerative diseases, according to a 2020 article in Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Among the evidence pointed out in the study:

• Fecal short-chain fatty acid concentrations are lower in patients with depression. Butyrate in particular is noted for its antidepressant-like effect.
• Children with autism spectrum disorders have had both lower and higher levels of certain short-chain fatty acids than control groups.
• Recent studies have also suggested that an intestinal bacteria imbalance plays a role in the development of anxiety, bipolar disorder, psychosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

Conclusion

New studies are illustrating just how powerful the gut microbiome can be in helping our bodies heal from cancer, heart disease, and more. It’s humbling to consider how much is still undiscovered, but one thing is clear: nurturing our gut microbes is essential to our health and well-being.