Tributyrin – A Very Useful Postbiotic

Most us know that beneficial gut bacteria are very healthy for us. One of the more important benefits of probiotic bacteria is in creating short chain fatty acids, especially butyrate. Butyrate is considered a “postbiotic”, a beneficial byproduct of bacterial fermentation. (PREbiotics feed good bacteria, PRObiotics are beneficial bacteria, POSTbiotics are beneficial substances made from those probiotics).

I’ve been a proponent of Butyrate for several years now. Butyrate is well known for its ability to heal the gut lining, feeding the cells of the colon, as well as its ability to help the gut kill several kinds of bad bacteria. I consider it in the top 5 important gut supplements and certainly one you should be taking if you have gut issues. However, until recently there wasn’t a form of butyrate that could reliably work in the large and small intestine. Tributyrin changes that!

There are various formulations of Butyrate and Tributyrin, some are better absorbed than others. Many forms of butyrate, such as Sodium Butyrate are mostly absorbed by the stomach and do us little good; therefore they require taking large doses to ensure that some butyrate makes it to the small intestine and perhaps the upper part of the colon. Until recently taking 6-8 large sodium butyrate capsules was the best way to get any butyrate to the colon. Tributyrin is relatively new (though a form has been used in animal feed for many years to prevent dysbiosis in livestock) and is a much better choice than sodium butyrate. My favorite form of tributyrin is CoreBiome®, it may have a small edge on regular tributyrin, but if you can’t find it, or it’s not within your budget, then tributyrin is nearly as good (and what I take for maintenance).

Normally, beneficial bacteria in a healthy gut make enough butyrate to meet our needs if fed a proper diet. Note that there are three conditions to this statement “normally”, “healthy” and “if fed a proper diet”. If your gut is out of whack then you most likely have a microbial dysbiosis in your gut; this means you have too much bad bacteria and not enough of the bacteria that produce the all important short-chain fatty acids, especially butyrate. Few people have a “healthy” gut, we eat too much junk and not enough PREbiotic foods.  To the third condition, “if properly fed”; beneficial bacteria need a variety of soluble fibers, beta glucans, mushroom chitin, or other prebiotic foods in order to produce butyrate. The bacteria need this food at the site of butyrate manufacture, in other words, throughout the gut. If you don’t get enough of these prebiotics it gets used up in the first part of the colon, leaving nothing for the bacteria below. This is thought to be why most colon cancers occur in the last part of the colon, not enough butyrate to keep the cells healthy and to prevent bad bacteria (and their damaging toxins). Tributyrin helps clear out the bad bacteria in the lower colon and provides it with butyrate (which all colon cells need).

Tributyrin also helps correct a bacterial dysbiosis in the large intestine. Research studies have shown that it helps get rid of E.coli and Klebsiella in the gut (among other unwanted bacteria) while feeding the colon’s epithelial cells. It has been found to significantly reduce inflammation in the intestine and leads to repair of leaky gut.  Tributyrin helps to eliminate bad bacteria, improves the numbers of beneficial bacteria, and helps keep the intestinal lining healthy.  This makes it one of the most powerful gut supplements you can take.

• Tributyrin Supplements on Amazon
• The Phage Complete companion protocol now recommends Tributyrin.  It helps make this protocol all the more powerful as well as healing!

 

Research Studies

(also see the full Butyrate article and Chapter 2 of The Gut Health Protocol):

“Tributyrin alleviates gut microbiota dysbiosis to repair intestinal damage in antibiotic-treated mice… We found that TB supplementation alleviated antibiotics-induced weight loss, diarrhea, and intestinal tissue damage… The 16S rRNA sequence analysis showed that TB intervention increased the α diversity of intestinal flora, increased potential short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)-producing bacteria (such as Muribaculaceae and Bifidobacterium), and inhibited the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria (such as Bacteroidetes and Enterococcus)… and upregulated tight junction proteins… TB can restore the dysbiosis of gut microbiota, increase SCFAs, suppress inflammation, and ameliorate antibiotic-induced intestinal damage, indicating that TB might be a potential gut microbiota modulator.” – PubMed #37523400

 

“We found that TB (Tributyrin) supplementation alleviated antibiotics-induced weight loss, diarrhea, and intestinal tissue damage… TB can restore the dysbiosis of gut microbiota, increase SCFAs, suppress inflammation, and ameliorate antibiotic-induced intestinal damage, indicating that TB might be a potential gut microbiota modulator… TB intervention might inhibit the expression of intestinal IL-1β and protect intestinal tight junctions to maintain intestinal barrier integrity.” – PubMed #PMC10389721

 

“The short-chain fatty acid butyrate plays critical roles in human gut health, affecting immunomodulation, cell differentiation, and apoptosis, while also serving as the preferred carbon source for colon cells… Butyrate is normally produced in the gut by butyrogenic anaerobic bacteria (e.g., Faecalibacterium prausnitzii [7] or Clostridium spp. [8]). However, low-fiber diets can decrease the cross-feeding of these species [9], resulting in low levels of gut butyrate, which may lead to inflammation and other bowel diseases… Butyrogenic bacteria populations are also decreased in many inflammatory bowel diseases”  – PubMed #32443851

 

“These data indicate that butyrate helps maintain epithelial mitochondrial form/function when challenged by E. coli-LF82 and that this occurs, at least in part, via FFAR3. Thus, loss of butyrate-producing bacteria in IBD in the context of pathobionts would contribute to loss of epithelial mitochondrial and barrier functions that could evoke disease and/or exaggerate a low-grade inflammation.” – PubMed #38078655

 

“butyrate supplementation altered the ileal microbiota composition of piglets, increasing the relative abundance of Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus salivarius, and Lactobacillus agrilis. In summary, glyceryl butyrate attenuated the immune-inflammatory response in piglets challenged with (Escherichia coli) ETEC by inhibiting the NF-κB/MAPK pathways and modulating the gut microbiota, and thus improved piglet intestinal health.” – PubMed #35607985

 

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