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culitoday at 7:57 PM4 repliesview on HN

It works by converting fibers into butyrate. You should maintain a high fiber diet to promote Roseburia in your gut


Replies

adrian_btoday at 8:08 PM

It is known that the bacteria that produce high amount of butyrate are beneficial, e.g. by decreasing the risk of colon cancer, but this does not seem sufficient to explain the increase in muscle strength that seems to be caused by this species alone.

The study has first found in humans a correlation between muscle strength and the presence of this bacterium. Then they have attempted to determine whether this correlation is due to a causal relationship by killing the gut bacteria in mice, then feeding them with this kind of human gut bacteria. The result was an increased muscle strength, which seems to confirm causality.

How the bacteria increase muscle strength remains unknown. I think that a possible explanation may be that this bacterium produces some substance that mimics a human hormone, e.g. a steroid, in which case it would be a kind of natural doping.

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DiscourseFantoday at 8:25 PM

I've always eaten a ton of fiber, to the point where if I stop I get constipated, and I've always put on muscle fairly easily.

b65e8bee43c2ed0today at 8:32 PM

the fiber will promote all bacteria in your gut, not just this particular strain.

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moffkalasttoday at 8:38 PM

You know it would be funny if at least once the finding would be "you should eat more hamburgers" or something.