Understanding Irritable Bowel Syndrome

There is no specific treatment for irritable bowel syndrome, says Vidal’s medical dictionary, only dietary treatment of the patient. However, in an excerpt from Tredaniel’s book “Covid-19 and the side effects of the vaccine”** Jean-Marc Sabatier describes a different approach to this pathology.

Jean-Marc Sabatier

The gut microbiota (also called the second brain) corresponds to all the microbes in the human digestive system. It is part of the microbiota of the human body, including pulmonary, oral, nasopharyngeal, vaginal and cutaneous microbiota.
The gut microbiota includes approximately 10,000 to 100,000 billion microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites (protozoa), and archaea.
Among microbes, archaea can be compared to bacteria because they are cells lacking a nucleus and organelles. Methanogenic archaea exist in the human intestinal tract, where they participate in the digestion of food.

Responsible for various microbiota

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is a large, ubiquitous physiological (enzymatic and hormonal) system that provides autonomic, renal, pulmonary and cardiovascular functions in the human body. It is also responsible for innate immunity and various microbiota, including gut microbiota. Thus, it has been demonstrated that dysregulation of the RAS (due to overactivation of its deleterious receptor AT1R) is a cause of dysbiosis in the body. Intestinal dysbiosis potentially corresponds to the proliferation of colon bacteria in the small intestine (SIBO or “small intestinal bacterial overgrowth”), fungal proliferation of fungi in the small intestine (SIFO or “small intestinal fungal overgrowth”), proliferation of bacteria in the large intestine. (LIFO or Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) and/or proliferation of methanogenic archaea in the intestine (IMO or Intestinal Methanogenic Overgrowth).

Inflammatory reactions

https://www.myupchar.com/en, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

These dysbioses (changing the number and composition of intestinal microorganisms) upset the balance (homeostasis) of the body. This can lead to more or less chronic inflammatory bowel reactions, as well as certain pathologies or characteristic symptoms, including anemia, constipation or diarrhea, bloating, gas and/or abdominal pain (mainly due to food malabsorption, nutritional deficiencies substances and increased permeability of the intestinal wall, contributing to chronic inflammation).

Carbohydrate fermentation

Intestinal archaea (including Methanobrevibacter archaea) are often found in people who consume high carbohydrate intakes. These archaea use bacterial fermentation compounds, particularly hydrogen produced by carbohydrate fermentation, in the gut to produce methane CH4 (and carbon dioxide CO2) during methanogenesis. According to some studies, there is a strong correlation between irritable bowel syndrome (or functional colopathy, which affects about 5% of French people) associated with constipation and the level of methane produced. In addition, proliferation of methanogenic gut archaea may be associated with symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, and decreased intestinal motility or peristalsis. Unlike people suffering from SIBO, people suffering from IMO (“intestinal methanogen overgrowth”), and therefore prone to the proliferation of methanogenic archaea (such as Methanobrevibacter smithii) in the gut, are less likely to be deficient in cobalamin (the vitamin B12). Thus, combination treatment with rifaximin (a broad-spectrum antibiotic of the rifamycin class that inhibits bacterial RNA synthesis) and neomycin (an antibiotic of the aminoglycoside class) may potentially be of interest in the fight against irritable bowel syndrome.
If you suffer from this condition, talk to your doctor.

*Jean-Marc Sabatier Doctor of Cell Biology and Microbiology. He is Director of Research at CNRS. Here he speaks on his own behalf.

**”Long Covid and vaccine side effects: biological mechanisms and promising treatments,” published by Trédaniel.

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