SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941
Researchers at Tufts University have elucidated a mechanism by which the "good" bacteria that reside in our gastrointestinal tract can help protect us from inflammation, and how their disruption (dysbiosis) can increase the susceptibility of the liver to more harmful forms of disease. Their study, now available in the journal Cell Reports, identified two key metabolites produced by the bacteria in mice that modulate inflammation in the host and could ultimately reduce the severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
[...] People who eat a high fat diet are more susceptible to NAFLD. Replicating that diet in mice, the researchers found that within just a few weeks, their intestinal microbiota changed character significantly, with some species of bacteria increasing and others decreasing. At the same time, an inventory of metabolites in the mouse's GI tract, serum and liver showed some metabolites known to be linked to intestinal microbiota to shift compared to mice on a low-fat diet. Three of those metabolites -- tryptamine (TA), indole-3-acetate (I3A), and xanthurenic acid -- were significantly depleted in high fat diet mice.
"That's bad news for the liver," said Kyongbum Lee, Ph.D., professor of chemical and biological engineering at the School of Engineering at Tufts. "We demonstrated that two of these metabolites -- I3A and TA -- attenuate the effects of inflammation in several ways. Their depletion clears the way for disease to progress toward more serious stages."
Smitha Krishnan, Yufang Ding, Nima Saedi, Maria Choi, Gautham V. Sridharan, David H. Sherr, Martin L. Yarmush, Robert C. Alaniz, Arul Jayaraman, Kyongbum Lee. Gut Microbiota-Derived Tryptophan Metabolites Modulate Inflammatory Response in Hepatocytes and Macrophages. Cell Reports, 2018; 23 (4): 1099 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.03.109
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 08 2018, @02:09PM (6 children)
So does this mean bad things for people on keto diets?
(Score: 1) by xhedit on Tuesday May 08 2018, @03:42PM (1 child)
Keto has always been terrible for your liver and pancreas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @04:03PM
oh really? care to link properly designed studies?
(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Tuesday May 08 2018, @03:51PM (2 children)
Doesn't mean anything. This indicates that keto people will be more susceptible to NAFLD.
NAFLD doesn't have a known *cause* (other than what is mentioned above), but the people that get it have the following traits: obesity, gastric bypass surgery, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes.
If you are keto and have the above traits, you are going to be in for a world of hurt. That said, if you are keto and have the above traits, you are really doing keto wrong - as virtually every keto study I've seen indicates that it lowers every single one of those things.
That said, it *probably* significantly increases risk of AFLD/cirrhosis. You probably can't keto and drink heavily... safely...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 08 2018, @05:01PM (1 child)
It's not me, I have a friend who's keto and is trying to convert me (not going to happen).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @06:14PM
Eh. Give it a try. I think that you might be surprised at the results - most people are.
I'm encouraging of dietary experimentation - it is surprising how many basic nutrition facts go unquestioned. As an example, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" is a downright lie. As another example, I am a computer programmer person and reasonably competitive gymnastically, and only need about 1300 calories/day. As another example, I recently fasted for 5 days with no meaningful ill effect, while *increasing* gymnastic performance. As another example, new studies are indicating that there is no unsafe amount of protein for consumption (https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-11-19).
It is becoming increasingly obvious that (a) the microbiome shapes nutrition and (b) we have no real idea how. Calories In Calories Out is fundamentally flawed, and there is reason to believe that the 2000 calorie diet is *way* too much for most people (and probably all women). Nutrition science, as a science, is really in its infancy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @04:17PM
i doubt it. the people who wrote "People who eat a high fat diet are more susceptible to NAFLD" were not being specific enough. they were undoubtedly meaning a "normal" high fat diet. IOW, a bunch of carbs and sugar and too much fat. ie. the average american diet. they were not talking about keto. the reason that matters is because the whole point of keto is that you don't give the body any other fuel and it has to burn all that extra fat and cholesterol. no way for it to build up to cause fatty liver disease unless your liver doesn't work properly. unless someone can show that doing keto long term is hard on the liver just because it's not meant to be used for that so often, then this is not applicable at all.
since i don't have the testers for cholesterol and ketones, i have moved to a highly plant based diet with a small percent of other foods allowed. those other foods are keto-only. this, i feel, is more than safe until i can prove to myself that keto-only is working as advertised(safety wise). god knows you drop weight like nobody's business. i've lost 56 pounds of fat over the last 6 months.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @03:39PM (3 children)
No one ever says how to maintain the gut biome. Eat Healthy? What exactly do you mean? You can get various consumables with probiotics for healthy guts...but I have always wondered, since the bacteria are self reproducing shouldn't you not need to take a pill everyday to add gut bacteria? At least one side of this is a scam.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 08 2018, @03:54PM
So you supposedly could eat yogurt, kimchi, or freeze-dried packaged pills to get a "probiotic [wikipedia.org]" effect. But what does that actually mean given the complexity of human metabolism? Fecal transplants [wikipedia.org], on the other hand, are a treatment known to be effective under certain circumstances.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @04:20PM (1 child)
you're supposed to quit cooking and processing everything. you're supposed to eat raw and fermented foods most/all of the time. easier said than done, but that's the deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @04:44PM
Or, appearingly, we can add indole-3-acetate and tryptamine to our soylent [soylent.com] (or soylent substitute [superbodyfuel.com]) and get on with our lives.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday May 08 2018, @05:20PM
And why aren't they already at my local vitamin store?