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Gut bacteria affect brain health, mouse study shows

Wishful

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230112155812.htm

Two things caught my attention.

This one might explain the sex differences in ME:

"We already know, from studies of brain tumors, normal brain development and related topics, that immune cells in male and female brains respond very differently to stimuli," Holtzman said. "So it's not terribly surprising that when we manipulated the microbiome we saw a sex difference in response, although it is hard to say what exactly this means for men and women living with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders."

This one could explain links between ME and gut problems:

"Further experiments linked three specific short-chain fatty acids -- compounds produced by certain types of gut bacteria as products of their metabolism -- to neurodegeneration. All three of these fatty acids were scarce in mice with gut microbiomes altered by antibiotic treatment, and undetectable in mice without gut microbiomes.


These short-chain fatty acids appeared to trigger neurodegeneration by activating immune cells in the bloodstream, which in turn somehow activated immune cells in the brain to damage brain tissue. When middle-aged mice without microbiomes were fed the three short-chain fatty acids, their brain immune cells became more reactive, and their brains showed more signs of tau-linked damage."

I recently became intolerant of dietary fibre, which I assume is due to propionate from fermentable fibre.
 
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At the same time those SCFA are supposed to regulate the immune system in the human. So i think the researchers concluded that the relation between SCFA and brain health is complex.
 

Wishful

Senior Member
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Location
Alberta
So i think the researchers concluded that the relation between SCFA and brain health is complex.

That's the problem with basic building blocks: they are involved in so many parts of the cells and to outside factors that affect cell function that it's too complex to figure out. If you used radioactive-tagged SCFAs, the whole body would "glow".
 
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