Butyrate (aka Butyric Acid)

Butyrate is a short chain fatty acid, found in some foods, such as butter, and produced by colon wall bacteria such as Bacteroides species.

It can be taken as a supplement, or you can stimulate your colonic bacteria to produce more of it by ingesting cellulose containing foods, such as beans, onions, cabbage, squash etc.

Butyrate is interesting to me because it has some seemingly contradictory properties.

1. It suppresses the Hyphal form of Candida.
2. It suppresses Phagocytosis of Candida.
3. It stimulates the production of Mucin, which helps support a healthy gut wall ecology.
4. It feeds the cells lining the Colon called Coloncytes.
5. It may prevent Colon Cancer.

It amazes me that one substance plays so many roles in the maintenance of our gut ecology.

For more reading:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16633129


http://iai.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/72/11/6206


http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cbf.1533/pdf


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