The Negative Effect of Your Gut-Microbiome
As mentioned before, the gut-brain axis affects mental health. This direct line from the gut to the brain can cause challenges for people who don’t treat their gut-microbiome with care. The scientific and medical communities have accepted that people who have major depressive disorder (MDD) also often have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is caused by an imbalance of microflora (the bacteria) in your gut. Interestingly enough, those people with both MDD and IBS also have lower amounts of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus compared to people without MDD. Ready for some gross, but still really cool stuff? A study did fecal transplants from people who were depressed into healthy and germ-free mice (yes, fecal transplants are exactly what you think. It is a sample of feces from one living being to another). The mice started to display the same depressed traits that their human donors were experiencing. The conclusion was that the bacteria from the transplant started to send depression messages to the brain. There was a control. Non-depressed humans donated their own feces to different mice who still mimicked the behavior of their donors. A common way to treat depression is to use antidepressants. These work by balancing neurotransmitters in the brain. Those same antidepressants that are supposed to help with depression have been found to actually stop the growth of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. It has been theorized that long term use of antidepressants can actually prevent someone from fully recovering from depression, leaving them to rely on the pills for life. Without a healthy microbiome, you can experience some serious mental health challenges.
The Positive Effect of Your Gut-Microbiome
The good news is that a healthy microbiome can have some positive effects on mental health. This is going to take some explaining, but stay with me. A common way to gauge depression symptoms in rats is to use what is called a “forced swim test.” The thought is that the rats who make an effort to swim are thought to be less depressed than those who don’t try (In case you were wondering, I definitely don’t condone vivisection in any shape or form, but that is a post for a different day). So, these rats were terrorized by the scientists to create an anxious and depressive state. The scientists then fed a group of the rats a decoction of herbs used in Chinese medicine to improve gut health called Wenyang Jieyu (WYJYD). The rats fed the highest amounts of WYJYD performed the best at the forced swim test, immobility of about 33%. The rats who did not receive any treatment were found to be immobile during their test 66% percent of the time. It was then found that the rats who had the most WYJYD also had higher levels of healthy bacteria than the control group who were fed an antidepressant. Another study compared the fecal samples of patients who suffered from Anorexia Nervosa (AN) with a Health Control Group (HCG) at the time of hospitalization and again at discharge. When being hospitalized, the AN patients had few healthy types of bacteria compared to the HCG. As the AN patients improved and were discharged, the amount of different healthy bacteria improved, getting closer to those samples from the HCG. As their mental health improved, their gut microbiome also improved! The third interesting study about this is a study that was done over 13 years and was originally studying the effects of probiotics on Eczema. A group of infants was given supplemental probiotics for the first six months of their lives. Thirteen years later, the infants had grown up and experienced no cases of Asperger’s Syndrome 9AS) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Seventeen percent of the control group, who did not receive supplements, experienced AS, ADHD, or both. This study isn’t great as it was a very small sample size (less than 100 participants), and doesn’t definitively prove that probiotics can prevent AS and ADHD, but it is still thought-provoking. Is the reason that these disorders are on the rise because of poor microbiome management? There is a chicken and egg situation here, it is unknown if the microbiome heals the brain or if the brain heals the microbiome, but there is definitely a connection.
What You Can Do About It
The good news is that healing your microbiome can happen fast! As the bacteria in the gut have a short life span, the healing process can start in as little as 24-hours. The biggest way to make this change is to change what you eat! Short-term changes will have only short-term effects. If you are looking for long-term mental health relief, you should focus on the long-term solution! A diet filled with plant protein, fiber, and unsaturated fat is the best choice. A study asked people who were diagnosed with depression were asked change their diet to include more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, while also limiting sweets, salty snacks, and saturated fats. These people also received coaching for 12 weeks. This group took depression inventory tests at the beginning and end of the experiment and saw a 10 point average increase! There is also emerging science about a field called psychobiotics, probiotics that have psychological benefits. People with MDD who took probiotics had an increase on their depression survey of 7.5 points. Diet and supplements can improve the gut microbiome and mental health. This is a great substitute for people who want to avoid prescriptions because of the side effects or aversion to medication.
Closing Thoughts
Imagine being able to help your mental health challenges just by changing your diet! As someone who does have a history of depression and anxiety, eating yummy food sounds better than taking a pill for the rest of my life. I do want to state that this is not a “cure” for mental health challenges. Mental health issues cover a wide spectrum and a trusted medical professional should be consulted (that’s not me, I am not a doctor and don’t want to even pretend to be one!). Wellness coaching isn’t a substitute for medical or psychological care, but it can be done in conjunction with a doctor or therapist. If you are curious and want to learn more about how wellness coaching can help, please reach out! I would love to chat with you!
Check my sources:
Ait Chait, Yasmina, et al. “Unravelling the antimicrobial action of antidepressants on gut commensal microbes.” Sci Rep, vol. 10, no. 1, 2020. PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7578019/. Accessed 26 June 2021.
Aizawa, Emiko, et al. “Possible association of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in the gut microbiota of patients with major depressive disorder.” Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 202, 2016, pp. 254-257. Elsevier, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emiko-Aizawa/publication/303505301_Possible_association_of_Bifidobacterium_and_Lactobacillus_in_the_gut_microbiota_of_patients_with_major_depressive_disorder/links/5fcf1d61299bf188d4001e00/Possible-association-of-Bifido. Accessed 24 June 2021.
Feng, Zhenyu, et al. “Wenyang Jieyu Decoction Alleviates Depressive Behavior in the Rat Model of Depression via Regulation of the Intestinal Microbiota.” Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2020, 2020, pp. 1-13. EBSCOHost, http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=bd49d762-b901-46a0-8024-24e35ef9b09e%40sdc-v-sessmgr03. Accessed 24 June 2021.
Heidarzadeh-Rad, Nazanin, et al. “Effects of a Psychobiotic Supplement on Serum Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor Levels in Depressive Patients: A Post Hoc Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.” Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, vol. 26, no. 4, 2020, pp. 486-495. PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7547201/. Accessed 24 June 2021.
Jacka, Felice N., et al. “A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the ‘SMILES’ trial).” BMC Medicine, vol. 15, no. 23, 2017. BMC Medicine, https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0791-y?mod=article_inline#Sec1. Accessed 24 June 2021.
Kleiman, Susan C., et al. “The Intestinal Microbiota in Acute Anorexia Nervosa and During Renourishment: Relationship to Depression, Anxiety, and Eating Disorder Psychopathology.” Psychosom Med, vol. 77, no. 9, 2015, pp. 969-981. PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643361/. Accessed 24 June 2021.
Lang, Shan, et al. “Recognizing Depression from the Microbiota–Gut–Brain Axis.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2018, file:///home/chronos/u-5eeed550d9a39f7526fcd3bc9a3b20af651ec7da/MyFiles/Downloads/ijms-19-01592%20(1).pdf. Accessed 26 June 2021.
Madison, Annelise, and Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser. “Stress, depression, diet, and the gut microbiota: human–bacteria interactions at the core of psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition.” Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, vol. 28, 2019, pp. 105-110. PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7213601/. Accessed 24 June 2021.
Pärtty, Anna, et al. “A possible link between early probiotic intervention and the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders later in childhood: a randomized trial.” Pediatric Research, vol. 77, 2015, pp. 823-828. Nature.com, https://www.nature.com/articles/pr201551. Accessed 24 June 2021.
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