Benefits of oatbran?

Could a daily bowl of oatmeal lessen symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease in the colon? Researchers are exploring this theory as they delve into studies on butyrate, a short chain fatty acid (SCFA) found in oatbran, and its effect on the cells lining the colon (colonocytes).

SCFAs are created when undigested complex carbohydrates, such as dietary fiber, enter the colon and friendly bacteria cause them to ferment; the SCFAs, specifically butyrate, are of interest to the colonocytes, as these cells absorb the SCFAs, using butyrate for the bulk of their fuel, which keeps them alive.

The SCFAs are additionally beneficial because when the digested contents of the small intestine reach the large intestine, they are mostly liquid in nature, and the body uses much of the liquid and other materials (electrolytes, water and salt) for normal functions. After these materials are wicked away with help from the SCFAs, the stool becomes more solid and, therefore, easier to pass.

Various studies also have attributed vast powers to butyrate, including inhibiting cancer cell growth, cutting short inflammatory cycles and sustaining an epithelial barrier in the lining of the colon, which blocks any bacterium from entering the bloodstream. But in their primary function of providing fuel to the colonocytes, the acids don’t work effectively if they aren’t absorbed by the cells or if they aren’t absorbed by the cells or it the cells don’t use the fuel properly, which may be what happens in the colon of an IBD sufferer.

The cells may suffer as a result of malabsorption or misuse, causing inflammation and bleeding. Still, despite decades of study, no one can say with any certainty what butyrate’s role is in causing IBD or its implications for a potential therapy.

If you are asking doctor to tell you how butyrate works or if it works an associate professor of medicine and immunology and co-director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the University of Pittsburgh said they can’t help patient.

Scientists have seen an increasing, if mostly theoretical, role for butyrate in IBD treatment. In the past decade, for example, there have been more than a dozen mostly smaller studies involving the use of butyrate enemas for IBD treatment. For example, one such study reported that six of 10 patients with proctosigmoiditis improved with the use of such enemas.

Still, the reality is that no one is really sure what role, if any, butyrate will ultimately play in treatment. Doctor compares the current state of butyrate study to where probiotic study was five years ago. At that time, few large, credible, controlled studies examined the benefits of probiotic therapy for IBD. However, more scientific attention has been paid to the subject in recent years. In a recent randomized controlled study, patients on a specific probiotic formula showed improvement in pouchitis, an inflammatory condition related to surgically created internal pouches in ulcerative colitis patients.

As researchers continue to investigate SCFA, some IBD sufferers may attempt to increase their own production of butyrate by downing more oatmeal, a substance that has been shown in small studies to do just that. If one is going to speculate that oatbran is going to cure ulcerative colitis, doctors would have a hard time believing that.