Sulfur metabolism is emerging as a signature of IBD gut microbiota. Overrepresentation of sulfur-reducing bacteria (SRB) in IBD results in SRB-derived epithelial toxic H2S production that can overwhelm the body’s detoxification capacity, leading to impaired cellular respiration by inhibiting oxygen binding to mitochondrial cytochrome-c-oxidase. Butyrate potently inhibits SRBs and H2S, yet IBD patients have reduced short chain fatty acid (SCFA) production. More critically, H2S blocks butyrate oxidation, the primary energy source of colonocytes; butyrate oxidation deficiency is a defining characteristic of IBD.