What you may not have yet realised is that you and your gut bacteria (microbiome) are the ultimate ‘social network’ and have been around much longer than FB!
In fact, you and your microbiome are the perfect example of a symbiotic relationship. And, did you know that you have two brains (tell your friends-it will blow their minds)?! Yes, you also have a brain in the walls of your gut. It’s called the enteric nervous system (ENS) and is responsible for controlling the movement of food through your gut, transport of nutrients through its lining, gut blood flow, release of secretions, and also has immune and endocrine (glandular) functions.
If you’ve ever had ‘butterflies’ in your tummy before an exam or diarrhoea when you are anxious then you already know how your brain can affect your gut. Well, now we also know that our gut (specifically our microbiome) can affect our brains directly. This communication goes both ways through a system known as the MICROBIOME-GUT-BRAIN axis. It’s like a road with traffic travelling both ways. So in a nutshell, your gut brain and head brain talk to each other. This occurs in many ways, through the nerves that connect our brain and gut, through metabolites (products of metabolism) from our microbiome, and through the immune system.
There are 10–100 trillion bacteria in our gut, made up of a thousand different types.
Another way of looking at it is that there are 10 times as many ‘bug’ cells in our bodies as there are human cells – yep, we’re well and truly outnumbered! Previously it was thought that our microbiome just helped us break down food and absorb nutrients, controlled our appetite and feelings of fullness (satiety), maintained blood sugar levels, stopped bad bugs colonising our bowel and controlled leaking of dangerous molecules through our gut lining and our blood-brain barrier. However, recently it’s been discovered that our microbiome also affects our mood. This can either be directly, through production of neurotransmitters (nerve signalling molecules) or indirectly by causing conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
30–40% of people have a functional bowel disorder at some point in their life.
A functional bowel disorder is when you experience gut symptoms that can’t be explained by anatomic or biochemical defects. These conditions are more common in developed countries, which is partly thought to be due to the fact that the diversity of our microbiome is much less varied than people in developing countries – and also compared to earlier generations. Anxiety and depression are found in over 80 per cent of patients with various gut problems (for example, IBS and coeliac disease) and it can’t be fully explained by the stress of being sick.
IBS has traditionally been thought to be ‘all in the mind’ and unfortunately, still is by some doctors, but an interesting study has shown that sterile mice who are given the bowel contents of people with IBS, developed IBS symptoms and anxiety! This shows that IBS is not ‘all in the mind’! It’s probably best not to say to people your bugs are making you anxious though… Slightly more mind-blowing research in mice has shown that if you give mice with no microbiome a transplant of the microbiome of normal mice, the sterile mice take on the personality of the normal mice!
Treatment of mental health disorders has traditionally been with medications and/or counselling.
Whilst these may be still necessary in some people, it now seems that we can also improve these conditions and our memory and thinking ability with ‘psychobiotics’ which include prebiotics (food that our microbiome ‘eat’), probiotics (supplements containing good bugs) and good nutrition. As evidence of this, one study showed that depression in mice improved when they were fed a particular probiotic, compared with a commonly used antidepressant. Another study showed that cortisol (a stress hormone) is reduced in people given certain probiotics, similar to the effects of anxiety medications such as valium. However, probiotics alone are not the whole answer as the studies have shown that the benefits of probiotics are also affected by our genetics (which we can’t change) and our nutrition (which we can change).
One way to help create and maintain a healthy gut is to prescribe to a low-sugar lifestyle – sugar feeds bad bugs. To help our microbiome produce more of our happy hormones, we also need adequate tryptophan (found in meat, eggs, dairy, and bananas) and folate (found in green vegetables) in our diet. In addition, we need a good amount of dietary fibre which our microbiome break down into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which, among other things, can also improve our mood.
So, celebrate your bugs and feed them well as that can help your mood.
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