Dr. J. asked me to look at any relationship of microflora (gut bacteria) with hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Since hypothyroidism is associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I suspect there is — the question is whether anyone has studied it and published any papers on it. As usual, I restrict myself to PubMed source. – many of the studies were not human based… we take what we can find…

• Diet appears to impact thryroid size.[2010 Study], with a connection to Phytase and it’s role with the availability of phosphorus in the body.
• ” it should never be forgotten that gut communities contain important metabolic niches inhabited by species with highly specific metabolic capability.” with certain metabolites being supplied by only one or two species..[2008 Study]
• “Thyroid hormones can therefore have vitamin-like effects and, in conjunction with vitamin D, and possibly with other steroids, may be more aptly termed vitamones” [1997 Study]
• “The phytosterol-containing treatments induced the increased activity of thyroid glands, as evident by elevated levels of serum total thyroxine, total triiodothyronine, and free triiodothyronine.” [2013 Study]
• Helicobacter pylori decreases the ability to absorb thyroid hormones [2011 Study]
• Gram Negative bacteria produces lipopolysaccharides which regulates thyroid and pituitary functions [2010 Study]
•  Streptococcus pneumoniae infection reduces thyroid levels[2009 Study]
• Enterobacteriaceae (Yersinia enterocolitica) has been implicated with increased risk
•  Enterococcus faecium (probiotic) modulates “the activation of genes selected for functional interaction between the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid(HPT) axis and the melanocortin and the endocannabinoid systems [2011 Study]

So the answer is, some thyroid dysfunction is associated with gut bacteria, especially with the ability to absorb thyroid hormones. We know that H Pylori should be tested for, and eliminated if found. We do not know the good and bad bacterias.  There seems to be more information on raising thyroid levels (by diet, eliminating H. Pylori) then in reducing it. For high levels, diet changes could help — but the path is not clear.

Postscript: During this research I came across some interesting articles on antinutritional factors which I suspect are relevant to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

• “high levels of dietary trypsin inhibitors from soybeans, kidney beans, or other grain legumes can cause substantial reductions in protein and amino acid digestibilities… , the presence of high levels of tannins in cereals, such as sorghum, and grain legumes, such as fababean (Vicia faba L.), can result in significantly reduced protein and amino acid digestibilities”[*][2012 Study]

With this round of CFS, I have been using a Saturated O2 meter regularly that report heart rate. I have noticed that my heart rate has been much higher than normal (nurses have also noticed it). Fast heart rate is referred to as a tachycardia (think of a car’s Tach meter and heart (Cardia)). It has not concerned me because it is a common symptom of CFS.

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is a common characteristics of CFS. Recently I started taking Prescript-Assist, a very different probiotic that I covered in prior posts.

What I noticed the other evening was that my pulse rate had suddenly dropped by almost 30%. The next morning, it was back to the earlier high range. Tonight, I took a reading every few hours after taking Prescript-Assist and there was again a drop off of the high heart rate. This suggests that some metabolite being produced by the probiotics in Prescript-Assist may be causing the drop, OR, the probiotics temporarily suppressed other bacteria and their metabolites that produce the tachycardia.

Doing a little digging found that Clostridium septicum is one species associated with tachycardia and another CFS symptom, hypotension (low blood pressure). While this species is unlikely to be the one involved, it does illustrate the feasibility of one or more gut bacteria being responsible for both tachycardia and hypotension.

My hope is that the length of normalization will increase daily as the probiotics become better established.

Recently, there have seen several interesting articles finding that life expectancy increases  for a while as you BMI increase beyond the ideal, and then decrease.  This is very old news for me, as a statistician, I have seen this in actuary tables since the 1980’s  (tables used to determine insurance premiums — an industry where statistics trumps beliefs, usually).

Body mass index is defined as the individual’s body mass divided by the square of his or her height. As a physicist, I can’t help but notice that we happen to live in at least a three dimensional world (adding time, makes it four dimensional). Additionally, politics have had it impact by changing the levels of overweight based on belief or corporate agenda (i.e. if more people are overweight or obese, then there is more opportunity to prescribe or sell items to fix what may be a non-existent issue). For more back ground, see this Wikipedia article:

The problem of the non-actuary approach is that while you may find increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes; decreased risks of other diseases are not considered. In other words — a blinkered view.

If we assume that BMI 25.is ideal for a 1.6 meter individual, we find a weight of 72 kg. If we instead use BMI-3 or Mass/ (height x height x height), the equivalent number would be 14.655. For a 1.5 m person, the same BMI-3 suggests a weight of 49kg. For a 2 m person, BMI-3 suggests 136 kg.

BMI 25

In other words, shorter people can carry 16% more weight, and tall people must be 20% leaner. So on BMI, I would come in as 30, but with BMI-3, it’s 15.8. Or  30/25 = 20% above with BMI versus 8% above with BMI-3.

The term “evidence based science” is often tossed around, the unfortunate termed that is missing is “biased”, i.e. “biased evidence based science”. The majority of studies are not reviewed by hard-core independent statisticians.

In terms of studies for CFS and chronic lyme, studies that found no benefit from antibiotics often suffer from this type of bias. Antibiotics are part of a complex regime when remission has been reported — taking them in isolation does not “prove” they do not work — it shows only that they do not work when applied in a naive manner.

Dr. Myhill’s site gives description for growing Mutaflor, which I quote below. There is a very nice monogram on the history of Mutaflor available A second set of similar instructions are here. Experience with Mutaflor (with special emphasis on it’s impact on methylation therapy) is here.

Quote Starts…

Mutaflor is a preparation containing Escherichia coli (E. coli) strain Nissle 1917 and is manufactured in Germany by a company called Ardeypharm. It is available as a suspension and the best-value source of it on the Internet appears to be Linda VersandApotheke. The website is in German, so I have prepared Instructions for buying Mutaflor at Berlinda VA. If you still have problems with placing your order, you are welcome to e-mail the office asking to be put in touch with me (i.e. the author of this page). I will be happy to talk you through the ordering process.

The bacteria can be cultured at home just like normal yoghurt. I have not yet experimented with different substrates, sugars, times or temperatures, so do not know what is likely to give the best results, but here is a method I have found to work.

Ingredients/Equipment

Ingredients/equipment and notes

• ½ litre unsweetened soya milk – If using sweetened soya milk, reduce the sugar accordingly – aim to make the milk taste slightly sweet but not sickly.
• 2 dessertspoons sugar – Some sugars may work better than others; I had success with 1 dessert spoon each of unrefined cane sugar and Sweet Freedom syrup (a honey-like substance made from concentrated fruits). Probably best to avoid real honey as it has antibacterial properties.
• 5 ml Mutaflor suspension – After the first culture use some of the previous batch as a starter for the next.
• Large jar, flask or plastic container and somewhere warm for the culture to grow (around 37-40°C) – I strongly recommend using a yoghurt maker. Yoghurt can be cultured in a thermos flask, airing cupboard or oven, but it is very hard to maintain the right temperature. Too cold and the bacteria won’t ferment; too hot and they will be killed.

Method

• Heat the soya milk in a pan until nearly boiling to kill any existing bacteria.
• Allow the milk to cool to about 38°C – use a thermometer or wait until it is just slightly warm to a (clean!) dipped finger.

• • Top tip: If using a new carton of long-life milk you can skip step 1, and save on washing up by simply leaving the carton to warm up in the airing cupboard or oven before opening.

• Dissolve the sugar in the milk and pour into the container.
• Stir in the Mutaflor suspension or yoghurt from previous batch.
• Place container in the yoghurt maker, airing cupboard or other warm place and leave it to do its thing. It should take about 6 – 10 hours, depending on the conditions, and will appear thickened, with a mildly acid taste.
• Once the required consistency is achieved, scoop out a couple of tablespoons worth to keep in a sealed jar for use as the starter in the next batch.
• Allow to cool then keep the yoghurt in the fridge for up to 5 days.
• Enjoy!

….QUOTE ENDS

Some variations to the above instructions to try

We have been crossing the border into Canada to buy our Mutaflor, but are planning to start making out own soon. I will update with the results

• Using cow or goat milk instead, we happen to have access to non-pasturized whole milk at our local co-op
• The above uses Mutaflor suspension which is not available to me, so openning one capsule should suffice

We have been using this yogurt maker, Yogourmet-Multi-Electric-Yogurt-Starter – $60 which is from Canada, for other yogurts we have made and it has produced consistantly good results. We are considering adding one like this (6+ separate containers)
[UK Moulinex Yogurt Maker £24 ] when we start producing Mutaflor — mainly because it allows us to experiment quickly with different composition of the base ingrediants.

Concerning Mutaflor, a reader wrote:

Here are two places to get Mutaflor in the US:

Uriel Pharmacy in Wisconsin, if ordering as a prescription item. 100 mg. tablets are $2.95 ea. and 20 mg. tablets are $2.15 each (at March 2014). The 100 mg. tablets can be cut if one wants to start at a smaller dose. The pharmacy number is 866 642 2858.

http://urielpharmacy.com/index.php

Feel Good Natural Health Store in Canada
You MUST pay for the Express shipping if you live outside Canada, which is about $23. Even though the sales page says “Canada Only”, when you get to the shopping cart, you can select any state in the U.S. I ordered from here and received my order in a couple of days.

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