Can My Gut HEalth Impact My Mood?

​​While we have talked about the importance of gut health before, we keep coming back to it because it can have such a profound impact on your health. Not just for your digestion, but also for your physical and mental wellbeing. (1-4)
 
How is it that addressing my gut health can help my wellbeing, you ask? Well the answer to this is not as simple as we would like, so let’s talk about a couple of potential issues.
 
Ultimately, we are looking at the relationship between our gut and our brain, this is known as the gut-brain-axis. Your gut is involved in the production of serotonin, one of your feel-good hormones and is a precursor for melatonin. (1) It has connections with your immune system as well as a huge connection with our nervous system through the vagus nerve. (3) These can affect your brains ability to regulate mood signalling, emotional regulation, and even our sensitivity to stress. (1-4)
 
The gut-brain-axis is heavily influenced by the flora and microorganisms, microbiome, living in your gut. (4, 5) There is a delicate balance in play here between all the different microorganisms, and research has shown that these are out of balance in some patients with depression. Things like antibiotics, pathogens and foods have been shown to impact and change the delicate balance of the microbiome. In fact, research has also shown that gut infections can cause anxiety. (4-8)
 
Conditions such as depression and anxiety are multifactorial, and as such it is best to get to the root cause(s) for the best possible outcomes. Addressing gut health is an important step for a lot of people, but not everyone is going to have all their symptoms resolve completely through healing the gut alone. This is why we at sprouting health treat holistically and refer to appropriate services where necessary.   

REFERENCES

1. O’Mahony SM, Clarke G, Borre YE, Dinan TG, Cryan JF. Serotonin, tryptophan metabolism and the brain-gut-microbiome axis. Behavioural brain research. 2015 Jan 15;277:32-48.
2. Petra AI, Panagiotidou S, Hatziagelaki E, Stewart JM, Conti P, Theoharides TC. Gut-microbiota-brain axis and its effect on neuropsychiatric disorders with suspected immune dysregulation. Clinical therapeutics. 2015 May 1;37(5):984-95.
3. Forsythe P, Bienenstock J, Kunze WA. Vagal pathways for microbiome-brain-gut axis communication. InMicrobial endocrinology: the microbiota-gut-brain axis in health and disease 2014 (pp. 115-133). Springer, New York, NY.
4. Maes M, Twisk FN, Kubera M, Ringel K, Leunis JC, Geffard M. Increased IgA responses to the LPS of commensal bacteria is associated with inflammation and activation of cell-mediated immunity in chronic fatigue syndrome. Journal of affective disorders. 2012 Feb 1;136(3):909-17.
   
5. Carabotti M, Scirocco A, Maselli MA, Severi C. The gut-brain axis: interactions between enteric microbiota, central and enteric nervous systems. Annals ofgastroenterology: quarterly publication of the Hellenic Society of Gastroenterology. 2015 Apr;28(2):203.
6. Carding S, Verbeke K, Vipond DT, Corfe BM, Owen LJ. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in disease. Microbial ecology in health and disease. 2015 Dec 1;26(1):26191.
7. Lurie I, Yang YX, Haynes K, Mamtani R, Boursi B. Antibiotic exposure and the risk for depression, anxiety, or psychosis: a nested case-control study. The Journal of clinical psychiatry. 2015 Nov 25;76(11):1552-28.
8. Kelly JR, Kennedy PJ, Cryan JF, Dinan TG, Clarke G, Hyland NP. Breaking down the barriers: the gut microbiome, intestinal permeability and stress-related psychiatric disorders. Frontiers in cellular neuroscience. 2015 Oct 14;9:392.