Stool based biomarkers of icpbs

I came across this interesting article the other day. It looks at the differences in the gut microbiome between healthy controls and women with IC, using stool samples. It found that there are reduced levels of some gut bacteria in women with IC and that they also had elevated levels of glyceraldehyde compared to the controls.

So given that other studies have also found differences in the urinary microbiome in people with IC, for me, there really does seem to be some sort of link to an infection.

Could an overgrowth of some species of bacteria cause ICBPS? Could a deficiency in some species cause it?

Here is the article if you are interested in reading it.

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep26083
Braundmeier-Fleming, A. et al. Stool-based biomarkers of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome.Sci. Rep. 6, 26083; doi: 10.1038/srep26083 (2016)

and the one about the urinary microbiome -

http://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2180-12-205
Siddiqui, H., Lagesen, K., Nederbragt, A. J., Jeansson, S. L., & Jakobsen, K. S. (2012). Alterations of microbiota in urine from women with interstitial cystitis. BMC Microbiology, 12(1), 1-11. doi: 10.1186/1471-2180-12-205

Wow, very interesting Summerly. (It's not very summerly where I live at the moment.)

Besides the changes they've identified in the fecal microbiome, which surely must be significant, what I picked up in that was the association of other symptoms/conditions they've highlighted.

The paper says: "HPA axis dysfunction has been implicated in female and male patients and cats with feline IC, and thus may be common among UCPPS, but mechanisms that integrate pelvic pain, voiding dysfunction, HPA activity, and depression are lacking."

When they say they haven't found mechanisms that integrates depression and HPA axis dysfunction with pelvic pain and voiding dysfunction, I wonder if they've considered these could be secondary to the original cause? For example, ongoing pain leads to HPA dysfunction (adrenals) and depression in many different conditions. Once the pelvic pain and voiding dysfunction are resolved, perhaps the depression and HPA dysfunction self-corrects.

They've said a study is currently underway in the MAPP Network to determine if men with chronic prostatitis/pelvic pain have the same changes to the mircobiome. I wonder when that's complete?

Thanks for sharing this.

This 2008 study found in the references shows a link between chronic pain, inflammation and stress and HPA axis dysfunction: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18207189

This 2002 study is about HPA dysfunction and low morning cortisol in IC: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11832727

Low cortisol is linked to an array of weird symptoms including neuropathic symptoms, fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety etc.