A reader wrote:
“I know your research is confined to CFS. I have EBV with associated Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. How can I find out what species I have or am low in, so that I can find out what probiotics are best to take? Thanks in advance.”

In this post, I will document the process that I would go thru with PubMed. Sometimes you are lucky that appropriate studies have been done. After this I will go thru ‘self-service’ options – that is what tests are available and what information they may bring to bear.

EBV and the Microbiome

• Step 1: Search for the condition:
  • and microbiome – 14 hits for EBV Microbiome
  • and probiotics – 2 hits for EBV probiotic

What I found that may be relevant was:

• “A similar effect was found for plasma EBV antibody titres in EBV seropositive participants (p < 0.01) with antibody titre falling in the Lactobacillus casei Shirota group but increasing in the placebo group over time.” [2016] See this post (Yakult)
• “The fatigued athletes had clinical characteristics consistent with re-activation of EBV infection …After one month of daily capsules containing 2 x 10(10) colony forming units of L acidophilus LAFTI®L10 (DSM Food Specialties, Moorebank, NSW, Australia) , secretion of IFNgamma from T cells had increased significantly (p = 0.01) to levels found in healthy control athletes.” [2006]

Step 2 Repeat for the next condition

• and microbiome – 17 hits for Hashimoto Microbiome  all but one has a Hashimoto as the author (not the condition!)
• and probiotics – 6 hits for Hashimoto probiotic – all of them has a Hashimoto as the author (not the condition!)

What I found that may be relevant was: [2012]

• “. In experimental autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT), a murine model of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, probiotic strains Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 andBifidobacterium lactis HN019, which had been shown to enhance splenocyte IFNγ production in mice (Gill et al., 2000), exhibited neither stimulatory nor inhibitory effect on the disease development (Zhou and Gill, 2005). Taken collectively, the presence and the role of intestinal dysbiosis and the effect of alteration in the gut microbial composition remain to be investigated in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.”
• “Similar changes have interestingly been detected in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (Cindoruk et al., 2002; Sasso et al., 2004), suggesting a pathogenic role of the leaky gut barrier in the development of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.”

Looking at likely candidates for microbiome – autoimmune issues, i.e. Vitamin D levels

• 25 Hydroxyvitamin D Deficiency and Its Relationship to Autoimmune Thyroid Disease in the Elderly. “The prevalence of autoimmune thyroiditis was significantly higher in subjects with vitamin D deficiency (25(OH) vitamin D < 20 ng/mL) when compared with subjects with normal 25(OH) vitamin D (25(OH) vitamin D ≥ 20 ng/mL) levels (28% vs. 8%, respectively, p = 0.002).”
• This is echoed for EBV in The beneficial effects of vitamin D3 on reducing antibody titers against Epstein-Barr virus in multiple sclerosis patients[2015]. and other studies

Bottom Line from the Literature

• For EBV
  • Vitamin D (in very significant quantities)
  • Yakult (Lactobacillus casei Shirota)
  • L acidophilus LAFTI®L10

Self Serve

With physicians being cooperative, I would suggest getting

• DOCTOR’S DATA STOOL TEST (see this post for an example) – it’s a 10,000 meter view of your microbiome
  • A university research lab analysis
  • https://www.gdx.net/product/gi-effects-comprehensive-stool-test
  • http://www.secondgenome.com/solutions
• Or go the ‘citizen scientist’ approach with a detail analysis (hundreds of strains reported) from one of:
  • http://ubiome.com/  $89
  • http://americangut.org/ $99

These later analysis should not be taken as “gospel” there can be disagreements from the same sample:

• ScienceNews Article by Tina Saey
• Blog Post by Tim Steele
• Blog by PostDoc at MIT

I would advocate doing both of the citizen science tests — we do not know which one is more accurate.