In the early s Michel-Eugène Chevreul, a French organic chemist, first discovered butyric acid in its impure form while acidifying animal fat soaps. (Source)
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Butyric acid, also known as butanoic acid, is a four-carbon short-chain fatty acid that is found in a number of foods and is also produced in our bodies. Its name comes from the ancient Greek word for butter.
Known as the “stinky fat,” butyric acid boasts an aromatic odor (to put it kindly) that has been described as both rancid butter and stale cheddar. It’s also responsible for the familiar lactic acid flavor that we often associate with fresh, homemade bread, butter, and yogurt.
Although butyric acid is naturally occurring in different types of dairy products, it's found in even greater amounts in the digestive tracts of humans and other mammals. The organic compound is produced when complex sugars are broken down during the process of fermentation. Its main function is to provide energy to cells of the colon, but it also supports the immune system with its powerful anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.
In today's edition, we're exploring butyric acid, AKA the pungent, rancid odor that you might recognize from that time your butter went bad — and also a powerful healing nutrient in our bodies.
Butyric acid, also known as butanoic acid, is a short-chain, saturated fatty acid (SCFA) that is found in plant oils and animal fats, especially products such as butter, ghee, and raw milk. It’s also produced when carbohydrates like fiber are fermented by bacteria in the colon.
Butyric acid is the preferred fuel of your enterocytes, the cells that line the intestines. In other words, it's what your gut cells prefer to burn for energy. Estimates suggest that the compound provides your colon cells with about 70% of their energy needs. (Source)
Note: Although the terms “butyric acid” and “butyrate” are commonly used interchangeably even in the literature, scientifically speaking, the two compounds have slightly different structures (butyrate has one less proton than butyric acid). However, research appears to show that they have identical health benefits.
Butyric acid can also help support your immune function and keep your gut barrier healthy. It's known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties and to play a role in gut barrier function, immune system regulation, and metabolic regulation. (Source) That's why the compound has gained attention for its potential role in treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and colorectal cancer. On the flip side, decreased butyrate concentrations and numbers of butyrate-producing bacteria have been linked with disorders, ranging from dysbiosis to strokes and even metabolic conditions. (Source, Source, Source, Source)
A diet high in fiber has long been considered a cornerstone of gut health, and now science is backing that up. Fiber promotes healthy intestinal flora and helps maintain healthy gut barrier function. It can also help reduce inflammation and insulin resistance, and may help reduce your risk of developing certain diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
As dietary fiber is fermented by bacteria in the gut, butyric acid is formed. Research suggests butyric acid in the gut helps kill colon cancer cells, making a high-fiber diet an important cancer prevention tool. (Source) Beyond that, butyrate can affect our brains by acting via the gut–brain axis. Through its ability to cross the blood–brain barrier, butyrate can activate the vagus nerve and hypothalamus, indirectly affecting appetite. (Source)
Thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties, butyrate can help control inflammation and modulate the immune response. In addition, butyric acid helps regulate the production and development of regulatory T cells in the colon, which are responsible for helping your body distinguish between itself and foreign invaders. Without the ability to tell self from nonself, the immune system may begin to attack your own tissues and organs, resulting in an autoimmune condition. (Source)
Related to immune function, butyrate also helps maintain healthy gut barrier function and prevent the incidence of leaky gut. (Source) Emerging evidence suggests there may be a link between butyrate and autoimmunity in humans as well. For example, people with type 1 diabetes — an autoimmune condition that affects the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin — have been found to have lower levels of butyrate-producing bacteria in their gut than those without diabetes. (Source)
Studies have revealed that butyric acid has a profound effect on the brain, ranging from memory and cognition issues to neurodegenerative diseases. In rat studies, butyrate stimulated the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a molecule that supports the growth and differentiation of healthy neurons in the brain. (Source) And in studies looking at animal models of Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, butyric acid has been shown to protect brain neurons from cell death and to extend the lifespan of mice with Huntington’s. (Source, Source)
Numerous studies have reported that butyrate metabolism is impaired in patients with IBD. (Source) Butyric acid has been shown to decrease colitis-associated intestinal inflammation and colon cancer in both animal and human models. In a small study looking at the effects of butyrate on Crohn’s disease, 69% of patients saw clinical improvements after treatment, with 53% of participants achieving remission. (Source)
Emerging evidence suggests that butyric acid may be a potential treatment option for IBS as well. (Source)
In one double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, 66 adult patients with IBS took either a placebo or 300 milligrams of sodium butyrate (the sodium salt of butyric acid) per day, in addition to receiving standard therapy. Just four weeks into the 3-month study, researchers found that subjects who took the butyric acid had a statistically significant decrease in the frequency of abdominal pain during bowel movements. (Source)
One of the more controversial potential applications of butyric acid is its ability to impact insulin sensitivity and obesity. In many studies, butyrate has been shown to significantly improve insulin sensitivity and reduce insulin resistance in people with metabolic syndrome. (Source) Researchers believe that this may be a result of the compound's ability to increase GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) and PYY (peptide YY), hormones that help your body to control food intake and increase fat burning (Source, Source, Source).
However, although a large body of evidence has suggested that butyrate may attenuate obesity and insulin resistance, a few studies have shown the opposite effect. Therefore, more research is needed to understand the effects of butyrate on obesity.
Studies have shown that butyrate has multiple modes of action:
Butyrate is known to increase the expression of genes that promote the growth of gut cells and suppress genes that cause inflammation. It appears to do this by inhibiting histone deacetylase (HDAC), an enzyme that regulates gene expression. This protects the DNA wrapped around proteins called histones, which has led researchers to believe that butyrate has anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects in the gut. In other words, it prevents genes from getting damaged, rather helping them to survive and adapt. (Source)
As mentioned, butyric acid plays a key role in metabolism and mitochondrial activity. Not only does it serve as the primary source of fuel for colon cells, studies have also shown its ability to support energy homeostasis and promote mitochondrial activity in animal models. (Source) Researchers have also postulated that reduced glucose availability in the brain may contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction in acute and chronic neurological diseases, which could theoretically be supported via butyrate because of its effects on energy metabolism. (Source)
Research has shown that butyrate is a key regulator of microbiome health and helps to strengthen the gut barrier. As a major energy source for the cells that line the colon, butyrate is preferentially absorbed to repair damaged cells and support the growth of new ones. In effect, it also keeps harmful bacteria and endotoxins from passing through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream, which can help reduce inflammation and the risk for chronic disease. (Source)
G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are members of a large protein family that are activated by a variety of neurotransmitters, hormones, and drugs. GPCRs are involved in many important physiological functions, such as the regulation of cell growth and proliferation, hormone secretion, and neurotransmitter release.
They are a common target in medications, but interestingly butyrate has been found to signal through a GPCR receptor called GPR109a. Scientists believe that butyrate's triggering of GPR109a may be responsible for the compound’s anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic effects. (Source)
Some of the food sources with the most naturally-occurring butyric acid include butter, ghee, parmesan cheese, and raw milk. (Source) Butter contains 3% to 4% butyric acid, making it the richest dietary source of butyrate. (Source) Some types of kombucha can also contain butyric acid as well. However, even the richest food sources contain relatively little of this fatty acid compared to the amount that can be created in the large intestine, so your best bet is to feed fiber to the microbes that generate butyrate in your gut.
Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are a type of prebiotic, substances that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the colon, such as butyric acid. Other prebiotic superstars to consider incorporating into your diet include garlic, bananas, onions, leeks, and asparagus. One study in rats showed a high-FOS diet increased levels of butyrate in the large intestine while maintaining the levels of anaerobic bacteria. (Source)
Resistant starches are gut-friendly carbohydrates that feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut and help them thrive. As a bonus, they also increase butyrate production in the large intestine as they are fermented by other bacteria in the gut. The best way to get more butyrate is to eat prebiotic foods that are rich in resistant starch, such as artichokes, plantains, and cooked potatoes. (Source)
Although diet is typically the best way to increase butyrate production in the gut, if resistant starch isn't a staple in your diet you can also supplement with butyrate directly. It’s commonly found in fiber supplements and often sold as sodium butyrate. However, you may want to hold off if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding — one animal study found that giving pregnant and breastfeeding rats sodium butyrate led to insulin resistance and increased fat storage in their offspring. (Source)
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Here’s a fact that reads like a riddle: Half of you isn’t you.
Fifty percent of the cells in your body are microbial, and they include fungi, protozoans, viruses, and bacteria. These microbes — known collectively as the microbiome — significantly affect your digestion, immunity, mental health, and more.
Given their supporting role in so many key functions, it’s no surprise that you’re healthier when your microbes are well fed and happy. One way to ensure this is by consuming enough fiber. (See “6 Ways to Eat More Fiber” for ideas to help you amp up your fiber intake.
Fiber is food for gut microbes — and it prompts some of those microbes to produce an important short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) called butyrate.
Also known as butyric acid or butanoic acid, this SCFA contributes to an astonishing number of health benefits, including improved digestion, better detoxification, stronger overall immunity, and reduced risk of cancer.
Lackluster butyrate levels, on the other hand, can contribute to problems in all these areas. “If we don’t have good butyrate levels, then these critical functions are impaired,” explains functional-medicine physician Gregory Plotnikoff, MD.
Butyrate plays a role in so many bodily systems that diagnosing low levels of this molecule can be daunting. A stool test read by a healthcare practitioner trained to recognize optimal and suboptimal levels is the best way to learn if your butyrate production is flagging.
Test or no test, it’s worth doing what you can to boost butyrate on your own. “Butyrate has been overlooked for far too long,” Plotnikoff says. “It is a powerfully protective molecule that is in our power to activate and promote.”
Learn more about how this potent molecule works — and how you can help your body produce more of it.
You need fatty acids in your diet to support optimal brain and gut health. These molecules are the building blocks of fat — both the fat you eat and your adipose tissue. They consist of chains of carbon atoms with some hydrogen atoms attached, and they come in three sizes: short-chain, medium-chain, and long-chain.
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Long-chain fatty acids are most common in animal foods and provide the essential omega-3 fatty acids in coldwater fish, eggs, walnuts, and chia seeds. Medium-chain fatty acids are found in coconut oil and milk fat, and they’ve enjoyed recent acclaim for their role in MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil — a key ingredient in Bulletproof coffee.
Short-chain fatty acids are present in foods like butter and cheese, but our gut microbes typically produce most of the SCFAs the body needs. These endogenously produced SCFAs include butyrate, propionate, and acetate, which work together to keep the gut and immune system in working order.
The best way to boost the body’s butyrate production is by supplying the gut with plenty of dietary fiber. Gut microbes break down indigestible fiber and turn it into SCFAs, which are ultimately responsible for the many health benefits associated with fiber: regular bowel movements and overall colon health, right-sized LDL cholesterol levels, steady blood sugar, and stable body weight.
(Insoluble fiber, soluble fiber, and prebiotic fiber are all essential to our health and well-being. Here are “The 3 Types of Dietary Fiber You Need” and a list of what foods contain them).
SCFAs also keep the cells that line the colon (called colonocytes) healthy, providing them with their main source of energy. Although butyrate is the least abundant SCFA the body produces, it has a big impact on gut health.
“Colonocytes seem to love chowing down on butyrate, so most of it is taken up by the gut lining, where it contributes to a healthy colon,” notes internal-medicine specialist and gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz, MD, MSCI, author of Fiber Fueled.
In a healthy gut, the walls of the large intestine are intact but reasonably permeable. They allow nutrients to enter the system while preventing the escape of bacteria, toxins, and food particles.
When intestinal walls are damaged, they become permeable and “leaky.”
A range of factors can produce this condition, including stress, a low-fiber diet, and food intolerances. A leaky gut usually leads to widespread gut inflammation, which can trigger gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and more. (See “What Is a Leaky Gut?” to learn more about this condition and for a list of telltale symptoms.)
Meanwhile, enhanced butyrate production can build a sturdier gut barrier. “Butyrate fixes up the lining of the gut, like taking a beautiful historic home that’s been run haggard and restoring it to its original glory,” Bulsiewicz explains.
Plotnikoff likens this relationship to the adage that good fences make good neighbors. “Our neighbors — our bacteria — are doing all the maintenance work on this fence that is the gut lining,” he notes. “If they’re not producing butyrate, then the fence is not being cared for, and it becomes rickety and wobbly. It’s not doing the job it needs to be doing.”
One way butyrate protects the gut lining is by keeping inflammation in check, a task that we sometimes outsource to steroids like prednisone, says Plotnikoff. But butyrate helps regulate inflammation without the side effects of these drugs. “It’s in our power to roll back inflammation or to prevent it from even starting when it’s not necessary,” he says.
Notably, research has found a link between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and a deficiency of butyrate-producing bacteria in the microbiome, as well as reduced microbial diversity. This may contribute to the overgrowth of an extra-nasty type of E. coli that often appears in the guts of people with IBD.
According to Bulsiewicz, this E. coli unleashes “pro-inflammatory proteins like a flamethrower as it proliferates, further enhancing dysbiosis and the rise of more E. coli.”
Butyrate helps arrest runaway inflammatory processes like these, and supplemental butyrate (in the form of capsules) is sometimes used to treat Crohn’s disease.
We now know about the connection between the gut and the brain, so it’s not surprising that butyrate plays a role in cognitive health. Immune cells in the brain become prone to inflammation as we age, leading to impaired cognitive and motor function. The anti-inflammatory powers of butyrate help mitigate that damage.
Studies indicate that butyrate improves learning and memory in older mice. Animal studies also suggest that butyrate may aid in the fight against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Alzheimer’s is associated with an excess of a protein called beta-amyloid in the brain, where it forms masses called plaques. These may interfere with cell function and damage brain and motor function.
In a study, mice given sodium butyrate supplements experienced significant reduction in beta-amyloid as well as improved cognitive performance.
Other studies link high-fiber diets and better butyrate levels to improved outcomes among participants with a history of Huntington’s disease, autism, or stroke.
Butyrate has also been studied for its effects on depression and other mental-health conditions. A meta-analysis of 59 studies found that the gut microbiomes of patients with depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis and schizophrenia, and anxiety all showed reduced numbers of anti-inflammatory butyrate-producing bacteria and increased populations of pro-inflammatory bacteria.
Butyrate’s benefits extend beyond the gut and brain to influence your immunity. “Although it remains in the bowel, butyrate’s effects are systemic,” says functional-medicine practitioner Kara Parker, MD, ABIHM, IFMCP. “It’s what’s called an HDAC (histone deacetylase) inhibitor, which means that it goes systemically throughout the body and messages cancer cells to turn themselves off and die.”
The salutary role butyrate plays in the gut may even extend to the health of the lungs, via what’s now being called the “gut–lung axis.” One study found that children who lacked butyrate-producing flora were more likely to develop asthma and allergies, while children with robust butyrate production were substantially less likely to do so.
Researchers are still unclear about exactly how butyrate contributes to these effects, but it appears to be through regulating immune-cell behavior. In other words, there isn’t much butyrate won’t do to protect your health.
If you’re eager to increase your own butyrate levels, here are several ways to start.
1. Eat more butyrate-containing foods. Some foods contain butyrate naturally. These include hard cheeses (think Parmesan and pecorino), butter, full-fat yogurt, and fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, pickles, and tempeh.
2. Eat more butyrogenic foods. Certain foods, especially those high in fiber, promote butyrate production in the gut: flax and chia seeds; beans and lentils; high-pectin fruits, such as apples and berries; and vegetables like garlic and onions.
Whole grains are also supportive, and resistant starch from green bananas and cold potatoes helps feed the microbes that make butyrate (for more on resistant starch, see “Resistant Starch for a Healthy Gut“). Parker recommends adding a tablespoon of potato starch to soups or smoothies.
3. Get enough sleep. Rest is a critical factor in butyrate production. “In deep sleep, you repair the gut,” explains Parker.
In turn, optimal butyrate levels also help support sleep. One animal study found that SCFAs send sleep signals to the brain, and that higher butyrate levels increase duration of deep, non-REM sleep.
4. Fast. According to Parker, a fast-mimicking diet (which involves fasting for 12 or more hours) may help raise butyrate levels. “When you stop putting the food in, you stop making the gut do the functions of digestion, and you allow it to switch to absorption and repairing the holes,” she explains. “This helps heal a leaky gut and helps grow more anti-inflammatory bacteria.” (For more on intermittent fasting, see “Everything You Need to Know About Intermittent Fasting“.)
5. Exercise. Studies show that exercise increases butyrate levels in the gut, perhaps because it encourages blood flow to the bowels, says Parker. She cautions against overdoing it, though, because stress can exacerbate gut permeability. “Marathon runners classically have breaches in their intestinal barrier,” she says.
Researchers are still seeking to define the line between exercise levels that improve gut health and stressful extremes that exacerbate permeability.
6. Mind your stress. When the body gets overly stressed for too long, cortisol levels rise, and the hormone is “an inflamer of dysbiosis and a suppressor of a healthy microbiome” that contributes to gut permeability, says Parker. (Learn more about the importance of cortisol and how to manage your cortisol levels at “How to Balance Your Cortisol Levels Naturally.”)
7. Supplement. If you experience gut pain, constipation, or poor sleep, and you already eat a varied, fiber-rich diet, you may wish to work with a healthcare provider to try butyrate supplements.
This can be especially useful if you’ve just finished a course of antibiotics and are having a hard time getting your gut back on track. “For a week of normal antibiotics, it can take up to a year to rebalance the microbiome, so, you’re going to lose some of the players that make butyrate,” Parker explains.
She says most of us will regain those bacteria over time through diet, but sometimes the process is too slow. “If you have severe bowel symptoms — an inflammatory bowel, or acute GI distress — you might want to take some butyrate for a period of time to help reduce that.”
In these situations, Parker may prescribe sodium-butyrate or calcium-butyrate capsules. It is possible to get too much, so she recommends working with a functional-medicine provider to get the right dose.
Butyrate has been found to help reduce inflammation in the lungs as well as the gut, and researchers hope it may help manage complications from COVID. A study found that symptomatic COVID patients had lower levels of butyrate-producing gut bacteria, which may play a role in the presentation of gastrointestinal symptoms with COVID infection.
Functional-medicine physician Kara Parker, MD, ABIHM, IFMCP, points to a study of healthcare workers in six countries published in . Of the 568 who got COVID, she says, “those who self-reported that they had a plant-based diet [reduced their odds of severe symptoms] by 73 percent. All those plant-based foods are contributing to increased butyrate. And you just have less gut inflammation when you’re eating fewer inflammatory foods.”
More research is needed, yet there’s no downside to upping your intake of vegetables, fruits, and other fiber-rich plant foods. (Learn more about what foods are high in fiber at “The 3 Types of Dietary Fiber You Need“.)
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This article originally appeared as “The Little Molecule That Could” in the May issue of Experience Life.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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