[EarlKing]

A number of studies have found a correlation between changes in the bacterial population of the distal esophagus and the onset of symptoms consistent with gastro-esophageal reflux disease and/or Barrett's Esophagus.[1][2][3][4] Your average practitioner doesn't necessarily keep up with trade journals, so it's unlikely most of them have any idea this is even a possibility.

What likely happened is as follows: Taking antibiotics that wipe out the comensal population of Streptococcus Mitis (read: oral bacteria) in the process of treating some other ailment created an opportunity for an invasive species to colonize your distal esophagus, thus leading to your observed symptoms. Subsequent application of additional antibiotics led to a temporary reprieve of your symptoms by virtue of partially (or even fully) wiping out the invasive species... only for them to subsequently recolonize your esophagus when no S. Mitis appeared to recolonize the area.

Prognosis: shrug Unless and until medical practitioners become aware of this correlation there's not a hell of a lot to be done. Ultimately, however, the solution would be to obliterate the invasive species with suitable antibiotics and then recolonize the area with S. Mitis or some other suitable species.

-- [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16437628/

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23496929

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15104362/

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4120752/

[cozos]

This is awesome! Do you happen to know anything about IBS-C that hasn't made it to medical practicioners?

[manmal]

Have you checked out butyrate? There are some sodium butyrate supplements on the market. And a Japanese probiotic with Clostridium butyricum which produces butyrate. Certain cells in the gut derive 70% of their energy (ATP) from butyrate. Butyrate deficiency => weak gut cells => inflammation + permeable gut lining.

„Protective Mechanisms of Butyrate on Inflammatory Bowel Disease“: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30277149/

[cozos]

I actually haven't heard about this, will definitely give it a shot, thanks! Where do you usually find information about this?

[manmal]

IMO /r/microbiome is a great resource. Reddit in general, eg the nootropics subreddit is a treasure trove also. You could also search for „ameliorates [insert problem] pubmed“ or „[problem] [potential solution] pubmed“ in the search engine of your choice, and if an abstract piques your interest, view the full paper on sci-hub.

One thing I‘d like to stress is that the internet is full of scams and counterfeit products, and you can only be (pretty) sure a supplement is legit if you order it directly from the manufacturer. I think iHerb also has really good quality control, FWIW. Patented extracts are IME also preferable over run of the mill extracts, some of them are orders of magnitude more effective.

[EarlKing]

Not really, no. Biology and medicine aren't really my field, and it's largely coincidence that I happen to know as much as I do about acid reflux disease.

[GutThing]

Thank you.