How Your Gut Bacteria Controls Your Mood

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95% of Serotonin is produced and stored in the gut  not the brain. Research has uncovered a connection   between your gut bacteria and depression. In  your lower intestine and colon there is a   garden of microscopic bacteria, fungi and viruses,  this collection of organisms is called the gut   microbiome. Now individually they are minuscule  but collectively they weigh about the same as   your brain, and when fed the right food they  become an incredible pharmacy, they produce   vital chemicals that are key to your immune  system and they produce neurotransmitters   such as Gaba and serotonin. Gaba has a calming  effect on the body and mind and serotonin plays   a crucial role in regulating mood, sleep, appetite  and pain sensitivity. Let’s look at Emily, she has   always been known for her cheerful and outgoing  nature but after a long course of antibiotics   she found herself plagued by persistent feeling  of sadness, Emily was eventually diagnosed with   depression. Now what is really interesting here  is that she had a happy childhood, no traumas, a   good relationship and supportive friends, so the  depression made no sense to her, but one day she   stumbled upon a fascinating article about the  connection between the gut and mental health.   She learned that antibiotics actually kill off the  good gut bacteria and this can cause depression.   So doing some further research Emily decided  to take charge of her gut health and started   to incorporate probiotic rich foods such as live  natural yogurt, sauerkraut and kimchi into her diet.   These foods contain live bacteria that helped  populate her gut with beneficial microbes and   to further support her gut health she minimized  processed foods and refined sugars which are   known to kill off the good bacteria. So as time  passed Emily noticed little changes she began to   experience improved digestion, increased energy  levels and a more stable mood. Her depression   started to lift and she felt more resilient  and better equipped to handle life’s challenges.   Now as a psychotherapist I’m more than aware  that treating depression isn’t always as simple   as changing your diet, depression is a complex and  chronic mood disorder that’s influenced by many   factors including genetics, environment and your  history but what I’m trying to illustrate is that   a vast amount of research has shown a definite  link between your gut microbiome and your mental   health. For example scientists transplanted poo  from depressed mice into sterile mice, now the   sterile mice had no gut microbes but once the poo  transplant had taken place the previously sterile   mice demonstrated behavioural and physiological  features characteristic of depression.   Researchers are now experimenting with faecal  microbiota transplants in humans and this has   shown improvements in bipolar disorder, depression,  insulin sensitivity, Crohn’s disease as well as   reductions in anxiety and ADHD symptoms. So you  can see that researchers are moving towards the   development of microbiota based interventions  in the treatment of depression. For example   there are now a lot of studies that illustrate how  probiotics reduce depression and anxiety symptoms,   now researchers are calling these probiotic  psychobiotics and the main constituent of   these psychobiotics is the bifidobacterium and  lactobacillus families. Fermented food containing lactic   acid such as cultured milk and yogurt products,  sauerkraut and sourdough bread have been   found to increase levels of the bifidobacteria  and lactobacillus families. I think it’s really   empowering that you can increase serotonin by  the food you eat and this really conflicts with   the notion that you need antidepressants  because you have a chemical imbalance in   your brain, remember 95% of serotonin is actually  produced and stored in the gut not the brain.   The Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry says, “Although scientists have been testing the chemical   imbalance theories validity for over 40 years, and  despite literally thousands of studies, there is   still not one piece of direct evidence proving  the theory correct”. The chemical imbalance theory   originally came from pharmaceutical companies  as a way of marketing their antidepressants   and if you think about it there is not, and never  has been, a test to measure your brain chemicals.   You cannot measure neurotransmitters  from a blood test, MRI scan or a CT scan.   I’m not saying don’t use antidepressants but I  do believe that rather than relying so heavily   on antidepressants we do need to address the root  cause of depression from a psychological therapy   and increase the growth and diversity of your gut  microbiota. So you’ve gut talks to your brain and   your brain talks to your gut, the communication is  bi-directional. Your gut and brain send messages   via your vagus nerve, so the vagus nerve connects the  gut and brain through what is called the gut brain   axis, all of which play a vital role in sleep, pain,  mood, hunger and stress. It communicates information   from the gut to your brain using neurotransmitters  such as serotonin and glutamate and gut hormones.  Suddenly the idea of having a gut instinct  makes sense, so if you ever notice how language   is rich we’ve gut based expressions? Have you ever  had a gut-wrenching experience or butterflies   in your stomach? Your emotions, brain and gut  are intricately connected, in fact your gut is   frequently called your second brain, it even has  its own nervous system, the enteric nervous system.   The enteric nervous system is embedded in the lining  of your gastrointestinal tract beginning in your   oesophagus and extending down to your anus,  it consists of more than 500 million neurons.  So scientists are now recognising the  importance of a healthy and diverse   gut microbiome in the role of good mental health.
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So are you going to make some changes to your diet to improve  the growth and diversity of your   microbiome? Let me know in the comments  and if you’ve enjoyed this video you may   be interested in the video on the screen  now and I look forward to seeing you soon.