Butyrate - What is it? And how it affects your HEIGHT, HEALTH, and ANDROGEN SENSITIVITY

[User28823]

What is Butyrate?

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) produced in your colon (large intestine) by gut bacteria fermenting dietary fibers. It is one of the three major SCFAs (others including acetate, propionate) and serves as:

1. The main energy source for colonocytes, the cells lining the colon.
2. A barrier-strengthener that keeps gut junctions tight
3. An anti-inflammatory signaling molecule, influencing both the immune system and gene expression through HDAC inhibition

How It's Produced Naturally

When you eat resistant starches and fibers, gut bacteria such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia, and Eubacterium rectale ferment them. The byproduct? Butyrate.

High-butyrate-producing foods (via fiber fermentation)

1. Cooked and cooled potatoes, rice, or oats (resistant starch)
2. Green bananas or plantains
3. Legumes and beans
4. Vegetables like asparagus, onions, leeks, garlic
5. Whole grains

Exogenous Butyrate Supplementation

Supplements come as sodium butyrate, calcium/magnesium butyrate, or tributyrin (a triglyceride form that survives digestion better).

Downsides of exogenous butyrate supplementation

1. When taken orally, much of it is absorbed in the upper gut, so less reaches the colon.
2. Butyrate is a histone-deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor - this affects gene expression epigenetically.
   1. At physiologic doses, that's beneficial: it suppresses pro-inflammatory genes.
   2. At excessive doses or chronic high exposure, HDAC inhibition can reactivate latent viruses (such as EBV, CMV, or HIV) because some viruses remain dormant via histone suppression, which HDAC inhibitors can reverse.

What happens when the microbiome is poorly diverse or fiber is lacking?

1. You'll have lower butyrate production.
2. Colonocytes get less fuel -> weakened gut lining and higher permeability ("leaky gut").
3. Mucus layer may thin, promoting inflammation and letting pathogens or endotoxins cross into the bloodstream.
4. Opportunistic bacteria (often proteolytic species that ferment protein instead of fiber) proliferate and produce toxic metabolites like ammonia and phenols instead of SCFAs.

Butyrate's effects on your height

Butyrate not only delays growth plate closure by downregulating expression of the estrogen receptor and thus slowing down ossification of the epiphyseal cartilage. It also directly promotes bone growth by enhancing expression of the IGF-1 receptor as well as IGF-1 synthesis. Butyrate also reduces activity of IGFBP-3, the binding protein which makes IGF-1 useless to bone.

In fact, children with significant growth deficiencies (height) don't just have low levels of growth hormone and IGF-1. They also have MUCH lower diversity in the gut microbiome. The SCFA content in the gut is 33% lower on average, with butyrate content being 54% lower.

Butyrate's effects on androgen sensitivity

Butyrate upregulates androgen receptor (AR) expression and can activate AR target genes even at baseline testosterone levels.

1. Men with higher levels of Firmicutes (butyrate producers) have significantly higher testosterone levels.
2. Sodium butyrate in mice activated the LH/cAMP/PKA pathway in Leydig cells, boosting testosterone, sperm count, and motility.
3. Gut bacteria deconjugate and recycle androgens, increasing free testosterone and DHT availability.

What to do with all of this information?

Now that you know how critical butyrate is, you should:

1. Feed your butyrate producers
   1. Eat diverse soluble fibers and resistant starches. Introducing gradually to avoid bloating. If you've eaten a low-fiber diet for years, your gut bacteria that specialize in fermenting fibers (like Roseburia or Faecalibacterium prausnitzii) have dwindled. Suddenly eating high fiber foods gives other microbes first access - they ferment it inefficiently, producing hydrogen, CO2, and methane. But if you introduce fiber gradually, those gas-producing microbes shift toward SCFA-producing species - and gas decreases dramatically.
2. Avoid excessive exogenous butyrate unless guided therapeutically.
3. Support microbial diversity by rotating fiber types (inulin, pectin, beta-glucans), including fermented foods in your diet (sauerkraut, kefir), and limit antibiotics unless necessary.
4. Pair fibers with prebiotic polyphenols (from berries or green tea) which nourish beneficial bacteria.

Sources

Peng L, Li Z-R, Green RS, Holzman IR, Lin J. Butyrate enhances the intestinal barrier by facilitating tight junction assembly via activation of AMP-activated protein kinase. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2009;296(3):G A P. doi:10.1152/ajpgi.90546.2008. PMID: 19147802; PMCID: PMC2728689.

Salvi PS, Cowles RA. Butyrate and the intestinal epithelium: energy metabolism and beyond. Nutrients. 2021;13(8):2796. doi:10.3390/nu13082796. PMID: 34444142; PMCID: PMC8304699.

Litvak Y, Byndloss MX, Bäumler AJ. Colonocyte metabolism shapes the gut microbiota. Science. 2018;362(6418):eaat9076. doi:10.1126/science.aat9076. PMID: 30385462.

He P, Lyu Y, Shen X, Liu W, Zhang Y, Li Y, Huang Y, Xu L, Zhang L, Guo S. Gut microbiome and short-chain fatty acids associated with the efficacy of growth hormone treatment in children with short stature. Front Pediatr. 2025 Mar 31;13:1557878. doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1557878. PMID: 40230807; PMCID: PMC11994682.

Kim J, Park H, Im JY, Choi WS, Kim HS. Sodium butyrate regulates androgen receptor expression and cell cycle arrest in human prostate cancer cells. Anticancer Res. 2007 Sep-Oct;27(5A):3285-92. PMID: 17970072.

Sadar MD, Gleave ME. Ligand-independent activation of the androgen receptor by the differentiation agent butyrate in human prostate cancer cells. Cancer Res. 2000 Oct 15;60(20):5825-31. PMID: 11059779.

Matsushita M, Fujita K, Motooka D, Hatano K, Hata J, Nishimoto M, Banno E, Takezawa K, Fukuhara S, Kiuchi H, Pan Y, Takao T, Tsujimura A, Yachida S, Nakamura S, Obara W, Uemura H, Nonomura N. Firmicutes in Gut Microbiota Correlate with Blood Testosterone Levels in Elderly Men. World J Mens Health. 2022 Jul;40(3):517-525. doi: 10.5534/wjmh.210190. Epub 2022 Feb 24. PMID: 35274505; PMCID: PMC9253793.

Qi, J., Sun, Y., Chen, Z. et al. Sodium butyrate promotes synthesis of testosterone and meiosis of hyperuricemic male mice. Sci Rep 15, 14757 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95846-6

 

[User28823]

@shieldzz @asdvek @Tyler1 @Debetro @Mizi44

 

[asdvek]

Basically eating those fibers puts your body in fight or flight state due to toxins.

Then your body starts producing that because it thinks it's in danger, starts producing that for more athletic ability to survive.

Another day another retard debunked.

 

[Daddy's Home]

Here before BOTB nobody gives a shit..

 

[User28823]

Basically eating those fibers puts your body in fight or flight state due to toxins.

Then your body starts producing that because it thinks it's in danger, starts producing that for more athletic ability to survive.

Another day another retard debunked.

Dietary fibers are not toxins. They're complex carbohydrates that human enzymes can't digest - so gut bacteria ferment them into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate, acetate, and propionate.

These SCFAs calm inflammation, not trigger stress. They also strengthen intestinal barrier and reduce LPS (a true toxin) leakage. They even improve parasympathetic (rest and digest) tone, not fight or flight activation.

The body doesn't produce butyrate, it's produced by gut microbes fermenting dietary fiber.

What do you think happens when you don't have dietary fiber for your gut bacteria to feed on? They begin feeding you the next best thing - protein in your gut lining.

This is exactly why I have ulcerative colitis. I ate a low fiber shitty diet consisting of high protein, low / no vegetables which starved my gut bacteria of food. This resulted in the gut bacteria feeding on my gut lining -> exposed the tight junctions in my intestine -> immune system attacks bacteria.

 

[User28823]

The way I know @asdvek is a retard is because components of his raw diet actually benefit butyrate production, yet he will say this is all bogus jewish science.

Raw butter and raw sheep milk for example contain butyrate directly.

 

[Mizi44]

@shieldzz @asdvek @Tyler1 @Debetro @Mizi44

Wow very cool i learned something new

 

[shieldzz]

From Greys

 

[User28823]

From Greys

 

[shieldzz]

View attachment 4262074

 

[User28823]

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holy fuck u are ugly