Epigenetics is turning DNA on and off. Another description is gene expression. A 2017 article ties this to CFS and there is a lot of other literature connecting epigenetic changes to other conditions and illnesses. This article not only tied it to CFS but with methylation issues seen with CFS/ME.

We detected 12,608 differentially methylated sites between ME/CFS patients and healthy controls predominantly localized to cellular metabolism genes, some of which were also related to self-reported quality of life health scores. Among ME/CFS patients, glucocorticoid sensitivity was associated with differential methylation at 13 loci.

Epigenetic modifications and glucocorticoid sensitivity in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) [2017]

A Feb, 2019 article in Cell, they found that bacteria influences it.

Thus, the microbiota can shape the post-translational landscape of the host proteome to regulate microRNA activity, gene expression, and host development. Our findings suggest a general mechanism by which the microbiota may control host cellular functions, as well as a new role for gasotransmitters.

Regulation of MicroRNA Machinery and Development by Interspecies S-Nitrosylation [2019]

A more plain English summary is in ScienceDaily.

Additional Literature Worth Reading

• Microbial Agents as Putative Inducers of B Cell Lymphoma in Sjögren’s Syndrome through an Impaired Epigenetic Control: The State-of-The-Art. [2019]
• Diet, Gut Microbiota, and Obesity: Links with Host Genetics and Epigenetics and Potential Applications. [2019]
• Autoimmunity and Inflammation in CVID: a Possible Crosstalk between Immune Activation, Gut Microbiota, and Epigenetic Modifications. [2019]
• Antibiotics suppress colon tumorigenesis through inhibition of aberrant DNA methylation in an azoxymethane and dextran sulfate sodium colitis model. [2019]
• Epigenetics, DNA Organization, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. [2019]
• Folate and epigenetics: why we should not forget bacterial biosynthesis. [2018]
• Microbiota-sensitive epigenetic signature predicts inflammation in Crohn’s disease. [2018]
• Diet, Microbiome, and Epigenetics in the Era of Precision Medicine. [2018]

Bottom Line

While recent studies are showing more impact of the microbiome (gut bacteria) on health, it also impacts how DNA behaves. We know little of the connections (i.e. this strain of this bacteria will turn some specific DNA on or off is still an unknown), we can reasonably infer that you have a condition/illness and a shift in microbiome — that they are connected and further more, there is a reasonable chance that correcting these shifts will improve the illness or condition. With a 100% normalization of the microbiome — there is a reasonable chance that the condition may go into remission.

There is a chart of relationship on my site. A listing also here. And suggestions (based on reports from the literature) of how to normalize for different conditions (when information has been published) here.

A reader asked me to review this heavily marketed on some channels.

In terms of marketing, their home page is thick like thieves with hype.

Just one single probiotic species in it. I must admit, I chuckled when I saw the distributor “Rush Order“

So it is a proprietary “super strain”: Lactobacillus Plantarum OM. Checking the patent application, we see it is “L. plantarum, OM ATCC 55981”  and a patent was originally file in June, 1997, almost 20 years ago and the patent is expired. So, immediate RED FLAG, “patented proteolytic probiotic, P3-OM™. ” – it is no longer patented, a false claim.

Checking PubMed, there are ZERO hits for plantarum 55981; so no peer-reviewed studies.

Origin: Remember human source is your only hope of it taking up residence. The patent application states “L. plantarum, OM may be isolated from a fermented meat. “

Price Analysis

One bottle is $79.95 and contains 120 capsules with 2.5 billion CFU. or a total of 300 BCFU in a bottle or $0.27 per BCFU. Going to Custom Probiotics which also offers a one strain only version of Lactobacillus Plantarum we can get 100g at 400BCFU/gram for $190. That computes to $0.00475 per BCFU … or FIFTY-SEVEN (57x) better price. The custom probiotics strain is Lp-115 or SD-5209. And I found four pubmed citations for this!

Bottom Line

The firm “Rush Order” seems to be trying to get you to rush your money to them for an undocumented, out of patent strain originated from fermented meat at an unrealistic price. I would give it a wide pass.

To be clear, there is nothing known wrong with this product. If you are interested, I have this excellent product that I am selling for just $500 for 8 oz. It’s the very rare and extremely well documented for healthy living,
hydroxylic acid . Just send me a certified check and an address!

Feel free to ping me to do other reviews.

A reader forwarded me a link to: “Ozone therapy is an effective therapy in chronic fatigue syndrome:result of an Italian study in 65 patient” My initial take was that I was not surprised — why? Ozone kills some bacteria… but we need to dig deeper. Note: both Ozone and Hydrogen peroxide have one abnormal Oxygen atom that easily reacts. Hydrogen peroxide does wonders for killing bacteria on wounds.

First this study

What was done: “therapeutic shock of ozone autohemotherapy”

What was the result: “> 50% improvement in symptoms”

• No one went into remission.
• “symptoms” is way too subjective
• “The practice of autohemotherapy carries significant risks without any health benefit. Patients have died. Plus, autohemotherapy has been an illegal practice in Germany since 1984, but you will find naturopaths advertising ozone therapy as “commonly used in Europe.” [www.naturopathicdiaries.com] – a very good read on legality in the US.

On PubMed

• A lot of studies on it’s use for dental caries.
• A lot of studies on it’s use for wounds and skins issues.

There are some 70 articles on ozone autohemotherapy many of them are from China.

• ” The results of this study demonstrated that ozone autohemotherapy combined with pharmacological therapy was superior to isolated pharmacological therapy in patients with
  postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) and was an effective and safe way to relieve PHN “. [2018]
• Myocardial Infarction after Ozone Therapy: Is Ozone Therapy Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? [2015]
• Ozone therapy induced sinus arrest in a hypertensive patient with chronic kidney disease: A case report [2017].
• Cerebrovascular pattern improved by ozone autohemotherapy: an entropy-based study on multiple sclerosis patients[2017].
• Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging following major ozonated autohemotherapy for treatment of acute cerebral infarction [2016].
• Ozone autohemotherapy induces long-term cerebral metabolic changes in multiple sclerosis patients. [2014]
• Major ozonated autohemotherapy promotes the recovery of upper limb motor function in patients with acute cerebral infarction. [2013]

Bottom Line

I would recommend a pass on this approach for three reasons:

• No studies suggesting remission, just symptom improvement (whatever that means — especially given the placebo risk)
• Real significant risks of adverse effects
• Those offering it are likely violating laws or naive in understanding the full picture.

” Ozone as a medical therapy has been used in many medical conditions; unfortunately, however, like every other therapy, ozone therapy has side effects. The literature concerning ozone therapy supports possible strong vasoconstrictor and prothrombotic effects of ozone therapy, further supporting our suggestion that ozone can lead to acute coronary syndromes in human beings. In conclusion, to our knowledge, our case report reveals a possible complication of ozone therapy that has never been reported before. We think that this article will raise the awareness of the possibility of thrombotic complications after ozonated autohemotherapy. ” [2015]

One of my favorite sources for information on the microbiome is run by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo. For many years he has advocated eating for your blood type. In this week’s issue of New Scientist. an article “Your gut bacteria may match your blood group – but we don’t know why“

The difference between many blood types are sugars. [PDF]

These sugars are called antigens and help tell your immune system that your blood cells belong to you and shouldn’t be attacked. If an A person were to accidentally receive a transfusion of B blood, antibodies made by their immune system would react with the B sugar and flag these cells for destruction. ..
The team found that blood type wasn’t linked to any differences in the kinds of bacteria a person had. However, they noticed that bacteria seemed to be recognised by antibodies from different blood types, in a similar way to when antibodies detect incompatible blood cells.
This suggests that gut bacteria make sugars that match their host’s blood type. “We were very surprised to see this,” says Yin.

While some bacteria are already known to carry molecules that are similar to B antigens, this is the first indirect evidence that bacteria can have sugars that behave like A antigens too.

Gut microbiota have blood types as human

You can help build Blood Type Profiles of Microbiomes

Microbiome site is updated with the ability to record blood type with your microbiome. http://microbiomeprescription.azurewebsites.net

• Login to see your uploaded sample.
• Click on Analysis for your microbiome sample.
• Click the item highlighted below

You will now see the ability to associate your blood type to your sample.

Bottom Line

Consider reading Peter’s eating for your blood type. Food impacts bacteria. I will be looking at the effort of filtering some suggestions by blood type in the next few weeks.

I often have attended the yearly talks of futurist/predictionist
Mark Anderson. This year there was talk about Mark’s new company, Pattern Computer.On that site I saw this interesting item

Insights in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Using the Pattern Discovery Engine™ coupled with a hypothesis-free approach, we analyzed a large dataset of 50 human microbiome samples, each with the relative abundance of the ~10,000 KEGG protein families. We identified 39 KEGGs that were significant in differentiating the disease states from each other and from healthy, with 9 of the KEGGs (out of 10K total) being most associated with a dynamic path from disease to health in the human-gut microbiome. Using our approach we were able to reduce the size of the dataset to be analyzed by three orders of magnitude.

What is a KEGG?

KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) is a knowledge base for systematic analysis of gene functions, linking genomic information with higher order functional information. The genomic information is stored in the GENES database, which is a collection of gene catalogs for all the completely sequenced genomes and some partial genomes with up-to-date annotation of gene functions. The higher order functional information is stored in the PATHWAY database, which contains graphical representations of cellular processes, such as metabolism, membrane transport, signal transduction and cell cycle.

KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes [2000]

Or in plain english, it is show what produces, consumes or influence processing of chemicals in nature (including the human body and the microbome in your gut).

We are getting into complex areas which makes a Gordian knot look like a straight piece of rope.

Their Draft Paper

Read the paper here. A chart from it is very interesting:

Further research into these nine KEGG protein families revealed that six of the nine KEGG protein families identified are related to oxidative phosphorylation. IBD, like other inflammatory diseases, may be associated with abnormal oxidative phosphorylation or oxidative stress [10]. Oxidative phosphorylation produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) in both prokaryotes and in the mitochondria of eukaryotes. Microbial ROS production affects the innate immune response, influencing the integrity of the intestinal epithelial barrier (2) which is compromised in IBD.

Path ways: K00330, K00348, K00351, K00434, K00604, K00607, K00609, K00633, K03671.

Bottom Line

While the sample sizes were small (and likely not widely distributed geographically), the results are definitely interesting. It does point to reducing oxidative phosphorylation and inhibiting reactive oxygen species as desired paths forward (and likely topics for future posts).

For people interested in watching the talk: