Lactobacillus Fermentum: a probiotic that creates/recycles glutathione, improves heart health

[Rita1979]

Since i seem to have mast cell issues and definitely have histamine issues I can't risk to take any random probiotics.
My gut is very sensible....

Since you have some knowledge about probiotics. Do you know any probiotic strain that can increase dopamine?
Always when i manage to push my dopamine levels up my gut becomes so much better and stable...

It might be a Vitamin C issue, a) Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine and b) it is involved in dopamine synthesis.

If you want you can just try to take higher doses of Vitamin C. If you start with it, you should start with approximately 0.5 g per day and then increase with another 0.5 g every second or third day such that your body can get used to the higher intake. Distribute the intake over the day as the higher a single dose less is absorbed. It is also tolerated better if you distribute it.

I am based in Europe and I have a nice living Kefir. If you want I could send you one for free, if you refund the price for the delivery via dhl or such, which shouldn't be too high I guess.

 

[garcia]

2 week update:

My husband has been taking this probiotic every evening for about 2 weeks at this point. Today we realized that yesterday he did some stuff that would usually wipe him out, but he was actually feeling relatively decent. He also had a beer and didn't feel it at all, which is quite unusual because lately he has been reacting even very small amounts of alcohol. I think this is a sign his liver is functioning better, but still too early to tell for sure. So far, it does seem like the probiotic is starting to do something, and he is feeling more convinced about continuing to take it.

Any updates on how you or your husband are getting on with L. Fermentum @Basilico ? Many thanks!

 

[Basilico]

@garcia , as of now, I'd say it's inconclusive. For a while, he seemed to definitely have some improvement, as I mentioned in the post you quoted. Then, toward the end of the 1 month treatment, he seemed to be reacting to small amounts of alcohol again. In the past few months, his alcohol tolerance and general health have been up and down. I am unclear if this is because (1) he needs to take LF for a longer period of time, or more frequently than 1 pill/1x day, or (2) the improvements he experienced were a coincidence and didn't have anything to do with the LF, or (3) it was just another situation where he has a good result at the beginning of a treatment that then disappears, which is common for him.

However, in the past few weeks, his alcohol tolerance has been better again (he can drink 1 beer without feeling it and actually seems to feel better after drinking a beer, which is something relatively new for him). Is this the LF working behind the scenes, or something else? Unclear. This past week, he did spontaneously feel much better, but again it's hard to know what is the cause.

I think LF is a really interesting probiotic with a lot of potential, and probably needs more than a 1 month supplementation to experience the maximum benefits. The directions for a standard course of Mutaflor, for example, is to take 4 capsules per day for 3 months. I think I will try to convince him to take at least another 2-3 months of supplementation.

 

[NotThisGuy]

another question is how LF produces glutathion?
I think it was L.reuteri which produced B12 out of glutathion. Maybe LF also uses up some nutrients to produce glutathion? Maybe thats why your husband only sometimes gets the benefit because it depends if he had the right food with the right nutrients for LF?

 

[Basilico]

I'm not sure exactly how glutathione is produced. But I do know that to synthesize glutathione from scratch the things required are sulfur and cysteine. Since glutathione is the master antioxidant in the body, it is found in every cell in the body. Because it's so important, in addition to synthesizing it, the body has ways of recycling and reusing it so it doesn't always have to be made from scratch.

It might be that he gets more or less benefit depending on how much available sulphur or cysteine he has in his body; that's an interesting idea that I hadn't thought of. We should do an experiment to see how he feels now if he eats foods with higher levels of those precursors.

Interestingly, as I mentioned earlier, he has not been tolerant of alcohol for a couple of years. However, there is a new and extremely confusing development, which is that in the past month, when he feels like he's about to get a crash, if he drinks a beer, the crash is averted. Yesterday was the second time this happened.

Either this has something to do with the LF supplementation he did, or possibly it's due to the fact that he's been consuming a lot of raw apple cider vinegar (in water). The ACV he's been using for a long time, but more recently he starting taking it after alcohol in a "tonic" (ACV, reed's ginger ale, water) to help him process small amounts of alcohol better. Unclear which, if either thing is responsible for the fact that a beer seems to avert a crash now. Also unclear if other kinds of alcohol have the same effect, or whether even other kinds of beer would work (Both beers he tried were from microbreweries and neither was pasteurized.)

 

[NotThisGuy]

Spanish amazon has 2 LF listed (still not delivering to rest of europe (( )
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B010EK1XVA/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A32Q0KZ8XILY3F
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B010EJVKTQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A32Q0KZ8XILY3F

Both products have other vitamins/aminoacids listed as ingridients and they pretty much look like methylation supplements to me.

 

[Gondwanaland]

Lactobacillus fermentum, a pathogen in documented cholecystitis
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Lactobacillus species are probiotics proven to exhibit various preventative as well as therapeutic properties. While lactobacillus species have been implicated in the formation of dental caries, endocarditis and bacteremia, their role as pathogens in cholecystitis has not been reported. We present a rare case of Lactobacillus fermentum working as a pathogen in cholecystitis.

PRESENTATION OF CASE
An 81-year old male was admitted with right upper quadrant abdominal pain. His signs, symptoms, laboratory values and imaging were consistent with a diagnosis of cholecystitis with ascending cholangitis. In view of his co-morbidity and severe sepsis, the patient was treated non-operatively with antibiotics and cholecystostomy. L. fermentum, which was vancomycin resistant, was identified from the cholecystostomy aspirate and from anaerobic blood culture. The patient went into septic shock, developed multi-organ dysfunction syndrome and eventually died.

DISCUSSION
Commensal bacteria such as L. fermentum are known to modulate immunity, reduce the pathogenicity of gastrointestinal organisms and play a therapeutic role in various disease processes. We isolated L. fermentum as a pathogen in a documented case of cholecystitis with ascending cholangitis.

CONCLUSION
While the routine use lactobacillus species as a probiotic is supported in the literature, understanding its potential role as a pathogen may allow more judicious use of these bacteria and encourage research to elucidate the pathogenicity of lactobacillus species.