For the first time ever in ME/CFS Ian Lipkin merged a gut microbiome and a metabolomics study together and came up with some surprising results.
For one the differences in the gut microbiome were more profound than in the metabolome. For another the study suggested that not only did ME/CFS plus IBS patients have radically different gut bacteria from the ME/CFS only patients but that they may have energy and metabolism problems all their own.
Finally, Lipkin reported that his Columbia lab and Derya Unutmaz’s Jackson Labs are merging their strengths to work on a new ME/CFS study. That’s the kind of collaboration we need more of.
Health Rising’s Quickie Summer Donation Drive is On!Find out more in this Simmaron Research Foundation sponsored blog:
“The Subset Maker”: Lipkin Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Highlights Energy Issues In Gut Subset
I admire your efforts Cort. I have to say though that I am coming to the view that CFS is a psycho-spiritual illness. After 20-30 years of research nothing close to a solid physical basis for the illness has been found. I think it’s time we accept that it is an illness beyond science’s understanding. We are wasting our faith in science. Better to focus our limited energies on the spiritual realm for healing.
I’m all for doing mindfulness work to reduce stress and allow out broken stress response systems to heal. It does work really well for some people, moderately well for others and not so well for many! In the meantime we are getting lots of positive studies and I’m sure that a biological answer is coming.
I respectfully disagree Matthias.
I don’t think science has ever been closer to answers. This is the most exciting research paper I have seen since Davis and Naviaux, Fluge and Mella and Loebel.
Last year Jared Younger released preliminary findings from his “Good Day, Bad Day” study. This indicated three major sub-sets:
– One third auto-immune
– One third inflammatory
– One third other
At the time, these ratios caught my eye because Loebel’s 2016 study showed that 30% of patients had auto-antibodies to beta-adrenergic and/or muscarinic receptors and these patients responded to rituximab. Heat shock proteins may also be a player.
It is interesting to note that Lipkin’s 2017 gut study also echoed Younger’s ratios – 40% of patients fell into the ME/CFS – IBS group. I think Lipkin has found the inflammatory subset.
I am also looking forward to seeing what learnings can be taken from the Cortene study. Issues with the central housekeeping centres or stress axes may account for the final third.
It is possible that ME/CFS splits 3 ways into the fainters, the septic and the energy wasters. Myhill et al (2009) found evidence of mitochondrial deficits in all but one of the 71 ME/CFS patients their group studied but the mechanisms appeared to differ for different patients. As far as I am aware most patients show signs of high oxidative stress and as this would be expected with any of the three possible subtypes, the disruption to the mitochondria is not surprising.
I am very much a spiritual person but Lipkin’s findings were sufficiently compelling for me to immediately invest in the most diverse multi-strain probiotic I could find.
Great connections there Debsw 🙂 We’re going to have a blog soon on probiotics.
Could you elaborate what probiotic?
Can’t wait to see how Ken Lassesen incorporates this data into his model or uses it for refinement/improvement.