Gut Bacteria and Our Mental Health

In a recent article entitled “Your gut bacteria are actively involved in your emotions, how you think and even behave” and featured on cbc radio, the link between our gut flora and our emotional health is growing in evidence.

“Scientific research that’s been picking up a lot of traction in recent years is starting to hint that our gut bacteria, otherwise known as our microbiome, is an active participant in our emotions, how we think, and even how we behave. Recent human studies have demonstrated a strong link between the gut and the brain.”

Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald spoke with Dr. John Cryan, a professor and chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at University College Cork in Ireland who came to this field as a stress neurobiologist, about this fascinating area of research.

“The next part of that puzzle then was, could we target the microbiome by some ways to dampen down the effects of stress? And together with some Canadian collaborators, we did some experiments to show that a single strain of bacteria, when given to mice, could dampen down their stress response quite dramatically.”

What this essentially means is that we have to some extent some control over how we can use diet and probiotics to help supply our microbiome with the bacteria it needs to support our emotional health. The article goes on to include the Mediterranean diet as it is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, and cautions people to do their research when it comes to purchasing the right pre/probiotics.

The full article is rich with information and is worth the read: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/mar-23-shopping-for-souvenirs-on-an-asteroid-new-cambrian-explosion-fossils-the-gut-brain-axis-and-more-1.5065927/your-gut-bacteria-are-actively-involved-in-your-emotions-how-you-think-and-even-behave-1.5065955

Photo credit: http://Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash

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