lassesen 7:54 pm on April 5, 2015  

TNF-alpha Reducers – a deeper look

A reader forwarded me a page where TNF-alpha reducers are listed “HOW TO INCREASE PERFORMANCE AND IMPROVE HEALTH BY INHIBITING TNF-ALPHA“.   TNF-alpha is strongly connected with inflammation and reducing inflammation is very desired in most auto-immune diseases.

As the last few posts showed, many of the substances have side effects on gut-bacteria that may not be good if you are dealing with a microbiome dysfunction.

  • ” specific bacterial abundances were directly proportional to measures of anxiety or cognition”[2014]

Top 16 Ways To Inhibit TNF

The list below comes from the above page, I will go through his other recommendations in latter posts. The goal is to identify TNF-alpha reduces with know impacts on gut bacteria.

  • point to an involvement of Bacteroides fragilis in the formation of fistula in patients with Crohn‘s disease[1986]
Recommendation Positive Negative
Elemental diet (R)

–Concerns–

 .Elemental diet is a Crohn’s Diet

  • Bacteroides fragilis significantly decreased, Enterococcus significantly increased [2012]
  • Species diversity not changed [2012]
  • Lactobacillus reuteri and L. johnsonii decreased and Enterococcus faecalis and E. durans increased in the ED group [2009]
Calorie restriction (R)

–Inconclusive–
  • life-long calorie restriction on both high-fat or low-fat diet, but not voluntary exercise, significantly changes the overall structure of the gut microbiota…positively correlated with lifespan [2013]
  • Total bacteria, B. fragilis group and Clostridium leptum group, and Bifidobacterium catenulatum group counts were significantly higher (P<0.001-0.036) while levels of C. coccoides group, Lactobacillus group, Bifidobacterium, Bifidobacterium breve, and Bifidobacterium bifidum were significantly lower [2009] -i.e. mixed results
 .
Fasting (R)

–Fine–
  • Faecalibacterium prausnitzii increases (good for Crohn’s),  an increase in microbial diversity  [2015]
  • feeding/fasting rhythms contribute to the diversity of gut microflora [2014]
  • Needs to be tailored.[2015]
  • Alterations in relative abundances of microbial taxa varied across hosts [2014]
  • Age and health may impact nature of change [2014]
Exercise

–-Inconclusive–

 .See full article — complex changes [2014] voluntary exercise attenuates, while forced treadmill exercise exacerbates, intestinal inflammation and clinical outcomes [1985]
PQQ (R) Pyrroloquinoline Quinone
–Inconclusive–
 .No PubMed Literature
Resveratrol (500mg, with 5g leucine),

–Fine–
  • increasing the Bacteroidetes-to-Firmicutes ratios, significantly inhibiting the growth of Enterococcus faecalis, and increasing the growth of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium [2014]
  • Resveratrol increased lactobacilli and bifidobacteria as well as diminished the increase of enterobacteria[2009]
  • Resveratrol metabolism by human gut microbiota shows pronounced interindividual differences [2013]
Curcumin 2g (R)…powerful (R)

–Fine–
  • fewer pro-inflammatory enterobacteria and enterococci but also higher anti-inflammatory lactobacilli and bifidobacteria loads [2010]
Jasmine Tea (R)

–Inconclusive–

 .No PubMed Literature
Cinnamon
–Fine–
  • Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, Enterobacter and Acinetobacter genera were susceptible to Cinnamon [2014]
Black Cumin Seed Oil….powerful (R)

Nigella sativa

–Inconclusive–
  • Reduces Staphylococcus aureus [2014]
  • antimicrobial impact on the growth of S. aureus, E. coli, L. monocytogenes and S. enteritidis[2014]
  • highly effective against Gram-positive bacteria [2014]
Rooibos

–Inconclusive–

 .No PubMed Literature
Carob

–Inconclusive–

 ..No PubMed Literature
Licorice (R),

–Fine–
  • .improved both bowel habit and IBS symptoms [2010]
Niagen NAD+  (R),

–Inconclusive–

 . NAD+, NADH, etc are all precursors to Niacin which natural production can be reduced by bacteria dysfunction.
Kombucha(R)

–Concerns–
  • .Effectively: Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum [2015]
 No control over strains and thus tossing a dice in effect.
2g Hops (xanthohumol) (R)

–Inconclusive–
  • .does not affect the composition of rat intestinal microbiota [2010]
 Impact vary greatly from individual to individual.[2006]

.

By Diet Type

Diet Type Changes Source
Carbohydrate ↓ Bifidobacteria ↓ Clostridium ↓ Bacteroidetes ↓ [2014]
Protein ↑ .Bacteroidetes ↑ Lactobacillus ↑ Bifidobacterium ↑ oooooo
Mediterranean ↑ .Prevotella ↑ Enterococcus ↑ Bifidobacteria ↑ Lactobacillus ↑ Bacteroides ↑ Clostridium ↓ PUFA: Lactobacillus ↑ oooooo