I admit it, I do not like many of the simplifications that I see for determining gut health. Those approaches were often the best available a decade ago; taught at universities, etc — but the world of the microbiome has moved at warp speed since. This is the 2nd part of my latest microbiome results, done with reference to a ME/CFS flare in 2019. The first part was Microbiome Outliers which showcased new analysis tools.
For many people with ME/CFS, simplifications will often be the limit of their cognitive ability due to brain fog. So…. I support the popular simplifications on my site so there is at least some data that they can grasp.
This post looks at the items below.
Core Supplements Suggested
The conclusion is that GABA supplementation may have a little effect, but a major difference is not expected.
For reference, my levels with active ME/CFS is below. GABA and Lactate were much lower then (and other things off).
Health Analysis
This page has many sections, I am going to do it section by section.
Health Status
Based on :Vinod K. Gupta et al, A predictive index for health status using species-level gut microbiome profiling, Nature Communications (2020) .
It’s interesting that both counts increased. In one sense, we can see that the count of typical bacteria being used increased from 5 -> 11 -> 15. In keeping with my observation of the explosion of unusual species and reduction of common species with ME/CFS flare, this makes sense (See ME/CFS Relapse Report #8)
Other Estimators
This is an experimental measure intended to reflect general medical conditions and not ME/CFS specifically. I have no other medical conditions and the results were stable across all periods.
Dr. Jason Hawrelak Recommendations
This based on his work and used with permission. See this post for more information. This measure went from 10 not ideal during the ME/CFS flare, to 9 at the tail end of the recovery period, to 6 at present. It appears to have credibility for ME/CFS
Unhealth Bacteria
This is nothing more than a listing of bacteria associated with one or more health conditions. IMHO, values less than 2000 are not sufficiently significant to be concerned about
The dominant one during the ME/CFS flare was Subdoligranulum which dropped down with recovery, 47258 –> 504 –> 1153. Parabacteroides are an ongoing concern — but they are not ME/CFS associated but associated with weight and blood pressure — two items that I am working on addressing.
Expert Consensus
This is extending JasonH ranges by incorporating additional ranges from different sources. All of these ranges do not take into account diet, ethnic DNA etc. so they should never be taken as gospel — rather vague waving of hands.
In some cases, a value may be deemed too high by some and too low by others — there is no definitive/right answer.
Proteobacteria was a major concern for being too high during ME/CFS, then dropped too low and finally dropped off the list (when it was in the range that everyone suggests). The other dominant item of concern is Bifidobacterium which has been consistently close to zero (< 1%). This needs some research, because age is a factor [The faecal flora of man. II. The composition of bifidobacterium flora of different age groups]
Among the vast gut bacterial community, Bifidobacterium is a genus which dominates the intestine of healthy breast-fed infants whereas in adulthood the levels are lower but relatively stable. The presence of different species of bifidobacteria changes with age, from childhood to old age. Bifidobacterium longum, B. breve, and B. bifidum are generally dominant in infants, whereas B. catenulatum, B. adolescentis and, as well as B. longum are more prevalent in adults…
Gut Bifidobacteria Populations in Human Health and Aging [2016]
In adulthood, the levels of bifidobacteria are lower (2–14% relative abundance) but remain stable (Odamaki et al., 2016).
On during further research, I see that it dropped from the expected range (4.3%, 7%) with the ME/CFS flare and have not returned yet.
Bottom Line
The changes seen here are a lot less dramatic than those seen with Microbiome Outliers. The amount of change was often so slight, that conclusions are fuzzy.