85+% of CFS patients being hypercoagulated (thick blood) was discovered by Dave Berg before he retired. He described it as a variation of antiphospholipid syndrome [PubMed 1999] or [Full Text]  No one has continued his work, very unfortunately. I responded to a reader comment that I suspect coagulation and the microbiome would be studied in the next 5-10 years. To my surprise, he provided a link to a study that is actually examining this.

I should point out that most coagulation disorders are viewed to be inherited. Actually, they run in families and often have DNA associated with them. The key word is associated. This does not mean that if you have the DNA, you will have it — just that the odds are greatly increased. Only recently have we found out that DNA and the microbiome have a cross dependency. Both the microbiome and DNA are inherited. Many inherited conditions may depend on both the right inherited microbiome and the right DNA to occur.

in 2013, a clinical trial was started at Yale University -“The purpose of this study is to explore if certain commensals within the gut microbiota (the collection of all microbes that live inside the gut) correlate with autoantibodies in the autoimmune clotting disorder called antiphospholipid syndrome. The study hypothesis is that particular commensals induce the autoantibodies (immune molecules that bind to self structures) and thus correlate with the level of immune cells and antibodies that are self-reactive. Participants are patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and individuals who have tested positive on a prior blood test for anti-beta2-glycoprotein I antibodies or those that have tested negative for antiphospholipid antibodies in their blood, but had a clotting event or a health problem that puts them at risk to form blood clots.” The investigator was Martin Kriegel [Source]

• Self or non-self? The multifaceted role of the microbiota in immune-mediated diseases [2015].
• Does vitamin D affect risk of developing autoimmune disease?: a systematic review[2011]. “Cross-sectional data point to a potential role of vitamin D in autoimmune disease prevention, but prospective interventional evidence in humans is still lacking.”
  • Vitamin D deficiency changes the intestinal microbiome reducing B vitamin production in the gut. The resulting lack of pantothenic acid adversely affects the immune system, producing a “pro-inflammatory” state associated with atherosclerosis and autoimmunity [2016].
• The role of the gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of antiphospholipid syndrome[2015].  Full Text
  “One potential piece in the “APS puzzle” could be the contribution of commensal bacteria to the development and maintenance of autoreactive CD4⁺ T cells and autoantibodies. This hypothesis is supported by early data from our laboratory using (NZW×BXSB)F₁ mice, a spontaneous APS animal model.”
  “A long-standing hypothesis in the development of autoimmunity is that of molecular mimicry, which refers to the generation of cross-reactive T and B cells that recognize antigens from microbial pathogens but cross-react to autoantigens [69, 70]. ” i.e. bacteria producing chemicals that matches the signals that the body produces resulting in inappropriate responses (i.e. auto-immune).
• “We propose that commensal bacteria can act as a source of persistent cross-reactive antigen in APS and other chronic autoimmune syndromes. In a similar vein, transient aPLs could be caused by cross-reactive pathogens in human subjects, whereas chronic autoimmunity in APS might be mediated by cross-reactive gut commensals”

The Principal Investigator, Martin Kriegel MD PhD: has a talk on Youtube

My reader wrote: “He’s giving an interesting 12 minute talk to Lupus patients (who are known to develop antiphospholipid syndrome). In one as yet unpublished mouse study, wiping out all the gut bacteria (with vancomycin or ampicillin) greatly improved mortality from clotting – ostensibly by reducing the autoantibodies which are suspected to induce APS.

In an early mouse feeding study, a starch diet also reduced mortality. which is surprising to me since I would have thought that an all fat diet would have starved or at least quieted the bad bacteria.”

Other YouTube worth watching by him:

As a foot note, we know that microbiome diversity reduces with age. This reduction may also be a significant factor for strokes.

• Microbiota Dysbiosis Controls the Neuroinflammatory Response after Stroke[2016].
• Stroke: Gut microbiota influence stroke recovery in mice [2016].
• Depletion of Cultivatable Gut Microbiota by Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Pretreatment Worsens Outcome After Murine Stroke [2016].