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2023/06/27

The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection : Anderson, Scott C., Cryan, John F., Dinan, Ted: Amazon.com.au: Books

Scott Anderson
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The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection Hardcover – 15 November 2017
by Scott C. Anderson (Author), John F. Cryan (Author), & 1 more
4.6 out of 5 stars 660 ratings

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Written by the leading researchers in the field, this information-rich guide to improving your mood explains how gut health drives psychological well-being, and how depression and anxiety can be relieved by adjusting your intestinal bacteria.

This groundbreaking book explains the revolutionary new science of psychobiotics and the discovery that your brain health and state of mind are intimately connected to your microbiome, that four-pound population of microbes living inside your intestines. Leading medical researchers John F. Cryan and Ted Dinan, working with veteran journalist Scott C. Anderson, explain how common mental health problems, particularly depression and anxiety, can be improved by caring for the intestinal microbiome. Science is proving that a healthy gut means a healthy mind-and this book details the steps you can take to change your mood and improve your life by nurturing your microbiome.
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Print length

320 pages

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National Geographic (US)
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Product description

Review

"More questions about gut, human health and disease? Try [The Psychobiotic Revolution]"
-Psychology Today

"This is an accessible guide for a lay audience on science that could radically alter the understanding of anxiety and depression, along with a host of other conditions." -Publishers Weekly

"...I recommend reading The Psychobiotic Revolution by Scott C. Anderson." -Forbes.com

"Although decidedly aimed at the lay reader, the tone throughout is very humorous; I found myself swiftly turning pages, excitedly anticipating the next witty joke. Overall, this is a great book that encourages you to 'take charge of your gut to optimize your mind and your mood'. This is a book that you would reluctantly lend to friends, in the fear that they might not return it." -Lancet

"The hope is that it may one day be possible to diagnose some brain diseases and mental health problems by analysing gut bacteria, and to treat them - or at least augment the effects of drug treatments - with specific bacteria. Cryan and his colleague Ted Dinan call these mood-altering germs "psychobiotics", and have co-written a book with the American science writer Scott C Anderson called The Psychobiotic Revolution." --The Guardian

"The Psychobiotic Revolution could change how you think." --sultanabun.com

"The authors of The Psychobiotic Revolution present clear research that we are indeed what we eat and that our lives would be much more enjoyable if we could balance our gut health in order to balance the rest of us." --Peppermint PhD. blog

"This book is written for a lay person. It does a very good job of explaining some difficult concepts in a way that will be easily understood by people who don't have any biology background without dumbing the subject matter down so much that people with more knowledge would cringe as they read it. That's a fine line to walk." -Spirit blog

"Many of my burning questions were answered in a simple and succinct way that makes the battle to improve our health and diet much more feasible." -Jathan & Heather blog

"Packed with the latest scientific research, [the book] informs and fascinates" -Literary Quicksand blog

"The authors have combined all the most significant information and then gleaned out the important issues that the reader needs to know in an extremely easy to read book, which becomes a real page-turner. This short book certainly relates to "You are what you Eat!" -Patricia's Wisdom blog

"This authoritative yet engaging book provides up-to-the minute research and practical advice on the gut-brain axis, perhaps the most exciting area of science today. Written by some of the leaders in the field, it gives terrific insight into what is going on in the gut, how to change it to improve mood, and the largely unappreciated links between mental health and the many other diseases now linked to the gut microbiome."
--Rob Knight, Director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California at San Diego, author of Follow Your Gut and coauthor of Dirt is Good

"Anderson, Cryan and Dinan have infused life into cutting edge research that is often still mired in the scientific language.... The authors take on a near impossible task, to translate 150 years of research into the infinite complexity of human behavior and make it digestible. Compelling, engaging and informative, this book teaches us why microbes may affect all of our decisions.... This is brain food!"
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About the Author
SCOTT C. ANDERSON is a veteran science journalist with specialization in medical topics and computer programming. He was one of the creators of Lego Island, a computer game, and his work has combined computer programming with medical research. He runs a laboratory called Freedom Health that studies bacterial health in racehorses and has developed prebiotics for animals and humans. He lives in Hudson, Ohio (between Cleveland and Akron), was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and recently lived in Sonoma, California.

JOHN F. CRYAN is professor and chair of the department of Anatomy & Neuroscience, University College Cork. A principal investigator in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, a leading-edge institute researching the role of microbiome in health and disease, he lives in Cork, Ireland.

TED DINAN is professor of psychiatry and a principal investigator in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at University College Cork. He was previously chair of clinical neurosciences and professor of psychological medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He lives in Cork, Ireland.

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Chrisl

607 reviews

87 followers

November 22, 2017

After 60 pages, the stickies for passages to re-read were a thicket.

Feeds long term interest in subject. Useful index, appendix, and further reading list.

Well done. Like the format. Teaching me. Let the quotes begin:

"The community of microbes living in your gut--your so-called microbiota--is like another organ of your body. It's a seething alien living inside you, fermenting your food and jealously protecting you against interlopers. It's a pretty unusual organ by any measure, but even more so in that its composition changes with every meal.
"It's not just made of bacteria. Your microbiota is also home to ancient life-forms related to the colorful creatures that tint hot springs, called Archaea. It includes the kings of fermentation, the yeast. It hosts swimming single-celled protozoans, constantly on the prowl. It also includes an even more insane number of viruses, as small relative to bacteria as bacteria are to human cells. Your gut microbiota is spectacularly cosmopolitan, making it a challenging beast to study.
"Your microbiota communicates directly with your second brain, a phrase coined by Michael Gershon in 1998 to refer to the network of nerves surrounding your gut. A good set of microbes encourages this second brain to keep the feast moving. For good health, including mental health, the food you eat needs to be good for you and for your microbiota ... including what we now call psychobiotics." ...
"Research keeps unearthing connections between seemingly unrelated gut and brain diseases. What do skin diseases like psoriasis and eczema have to do with brain problems like multiple sclerosis (MS)? The surprising connection is the gut microbiota. Even seemingly intractable conditions like autism may be improved with psychobiotics. Normal social bonding may depend on a healthy gut."
... "We underestimate these tiny creatures at our peril. So-called single-celled bacteria can in fact form great citylike complexes composed of several different species living harmoniously in a biofilm. It sounds exotic, but you step on biofilms every time you walk over a lichen-covered rock. The biofilms in and on your body are related to lichen, and share their features of resilience and togetherness.
"Biofilms are marvelously complex. They have pores for pumping nutrients, acting as a basic circulatory system. They maintain a protective coating--a primitive skin--that holds water in. The various species communicate with each other, using signaling molecules, including neurotransmitters ... they have in essence become a hardy, multicellular organism.
"The biofilms are everywhere, from your mouth down to your anus. In your mouth, you might know it as plaque. In your intestines, a pathogenic biofilm might be behind Crohn's disease. These biofilms are unavoidable. Fortunately, you can put them on your payroll. ... Properly established, a compatible biofilm can lead to a lifetime of gastronomic bliss, unburdened by inflammation and its frequent companions, depression and anxiety.
"A microbiota that is unbalanced and that provokes an immune response is called dysbiotic. It can lead to inflammation, which is a significant contributor to depression and anxiety. Worse yet, it is a major predictor of mental decline ..."
... "The first theories about the gut-brain connection go back to the 18th-century French anatomist Marie Francois Xavier Bichat, who discovered that the gut has its own nervous system, independent of the central nervous system. It isn't organized in a lump like the brain but rather as an intricate double-layered lacework surrounding your entire gut like a tube sock. Bichat also, far ahead of his time, saw the connection between emotion and the gut, and situated the passions in the 'epigastric center,'as he called it. At the end of the 20th century, the concept was dusted off and better defined by Michael Gershon, who dubbed the intestinal nervous system the 'second brain' in a book with the same name."
... "At the beginning of the 20th century, a French pediatrician named Henri Tissier ... discovered that babies fed on mother's milk had a population of unique microbes he called Bifidobacteria ...
"Tissier ... had two experimental groups of babies: bottle-fed and breast-fed. In the poop of children reared on cow's milk, Tissier didn't find Bifidobacteria. These babies were also not as healthy ... in fact, bottle-fed babies at that time were dying at seven times the rate of breast-fed babies." ...
"We are going to be talking enough about Bifidobacteria that we can nickname it Bifido. ...
"Tissier couldn't know that Bifido, along with other microbes, were not only helping with digestion but were also educating the baby's immune system. Without that basic education the immune system can mistakenly attack beneficial bacteria and even the baby's own cells. That can lead to inflammation and may plant the seed for depression and anxiety as the baby grows. Depression and anxiety can have many roots, but this one may start to grow even before the baby is born."
... "Bercik also tried fecal transplants between mice with specific behavioral traits and found that some of those traits transferred with the feces. When they took feces from an exploratory mouse and transferred it into a timid mouse, exploratory behavior transferred, too." ...
"When you wake up craving a doughnut, where do you think that idea came from? Your cravings are often just committee memos sent up from your gut microbes. They contain a complete list of the carbs, sugars, and fats they are looking for.
"Here's an example of how that works. Some microbes, especially our friendly Bifido species, produce butyrate, which feeds and heals the lining of your gut. Butyrate can make its way to the brain, where it can induce a good mood, dampen inflammation, or encourage the production of a brain-growth hormone."
"Your Bifido thrive on the fiber in your diet. If you feed them fiber and find your mood improving, over time you will start to yearn for the fiber that makes you feel good. That is a simple Pavlovian way to create a craving. Your Bifido has conditioned you to feed it." ...
"Cravings undergo a major change in people who have gotten a stomach bypass to lose weight. They have a completely different microbiota and brand-new cravings. In fact, much of the weight loss attributed to a smaller stomach is actually due to other factors, including changing tastes. Studies are starting to indicate that much may be due to the altered microbiota." ...
"Our cravings seem like an integral part of our psyche ... But when you think of your cravings as microbial longings, it may be easier for you to take back control." ...

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2010s

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Kitten Kisser

433 reviews

18 followers

September 20, 2017

As a person who has suffered with digestive issues for over 10 years, I have read a lot of books. I followed a lot of advice in a wide variety of said books claiming to fix what ails me but most of it made me worse until I started following Digestive Health with Real Food: A Practical Guide to an Anti-Inflammatory, Low-Irritant, Nutrient Dense Diet for IBS & Other Digestive Issues. After a few years of strictly following that diet I discovered FODMAPs. FYI, you don't need a bunch of books on FODMAPs. I highly recommend: The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet: A Revolutionary Plan for Managing IBS and Other Digestive Disorders & the cookbook (the recipes are sooo good) The Low-FODMAP Cookbook: 100 Delicious, Gut-Friendly Recipes for Digestive Disorders including IBS, Crohn's, and Colitis

Around a year ago I read Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. I loved this book so much I got the Audible edition next. The next book on the topic I read was The Gut Makeover: 4 Weeks to Nourish Your Gut, Revolutionize Your Health, and Lose Weight & now this book. So far out of all the books, my favorite is still the first I read. However this book falls in second place. I love learning about the inner workings of our body. The more that is discovered, the better I am able to understand & take control of my own health. The most interesting part to me is the one thing that still hasn't changed no matter what new things are discovered about our amazing bodies & that is in order to be healthy we need to eat a variety of vegetables, healthy meats (not factory crap), & fermented foods.

This informative book covers a lot of ground regarding what they call 'physcobiotics' these are basically foods that affect our mood. The premise is that our gut bacteria control our cravings & our mood. If our gut bacteria contains too many of a bad type of bacteria we may crave more of what that bacteria eats. This could be why some of us crave potato chips & others chocolate. - I recently read an article where in the US most women crave chocolate for "that time of the month" but in other countries women craved rice or fish. - The idea is that by eating better, we will feed the good bacteria & over time will reduce or eliminate our cravings for unhealthy foods & improve our mood. By eating good healthy foods & having happy belly bugs, we will likely loose weight, feel better (both physically & mentally), avoid many diseases, heal our bodies & our minds.

The book discusses proboitics that have been tested & proven. Yet one of these, Activia (yogurt you can find pretty much in any chain store) contains sugar. The author recommends avoiding sugar in yogurt because it negates the benefits. I have looked for plain Activia & it doesn't seem to exist. There are other probiotics mentioned. One seemed like it might be perfect for me, but it is banned in the United States. I have decided to order some organic yogurt cultures from a seller on Etsy (WellsOfHealth) that I've bought from in the past with excellent results. I am able to access my own fresh jersey cows milk, so all I need are the cultures. In the meantime I've been adding more yogurt to my diet. I came across a Oui by Yoplait (available in plain & packaged in glass) & the Simple Truth brand by Kroger that seem pretty good until I can start making my own.

Overall if you are looking to improve your health in any way, you will want to read this book & many others like it.

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juliemcl

135 reviews

4 followers

March 12, 2018

If there’s one takeaway it’s that there is much more research to be done & much more to be discovered about the gut-brain axis. The workings of the human body are still mostly a mystery, medicine still more of an art than a science. A book like this can help a person to Be One’s Own Doctor even if it doesn’t definitively answer questions like what probiotic I should buy for a particular condition. While the book does point towards some products/strains to try, this part is a little frustrating because it seems that the most promising formulations, with good research to back them up, have yet to hit the market, but that’s of course not the book’s fault. The book presents a good overview, in any case, of recent and current research.

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Alien Bookreader

320 reviews

32 followers

May 22, 2023

An overview of some of the interesting connections between gut bacteria, mental health and physical health. The science is summarized and footnoted. The book goes in more of a self help direction. The final conclusion is simplistic - all mental health problems could be solved with the right gut bacteria. This knocks down a 4 star book to 3 stars.

The brain is more complex than any other organ in the body, and mental illness like depression and anxiety (frequently mentioned in the book) are multifactorial. You cannot convincingly claim that a single factor like gut bacteria will solve these issues. Gut bacteria is important, but the author oversells it as a miracle cure.

health-nutrition

mindset-change

science-reading

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Diego Lovegood

284 reviews

60 followers

January 3, 2023

Quedé para la cagá con este libro. Desde hoy solo se come chucrut y kefir.

2 likes

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Erica

123 reviews

1 follower

June 18, 2018

Fascinating! I thought I knew quite a bit about gut bacteria and how it controls pretty much everything we do, but this book blew my mind! Not an easy read, which kind of bums me out—everybody should know that they can control their moods, psychological disorders, and autoimmune diseases by eating the right foods. But it makes me hopeful that this relatively new research will be going mainstream soon.

adult-non-fiction

2 likes

6 comments

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Manda Scott

Author

27 books

593 followers

July 29, 2018

Fascinating, life changing read

A detailed, readable, informative and accessible insight into the role of gut bacteria in everything from mood to Alzheimer’s. If this doesn’t make you give up sugar, nothing will....

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Rosa Toonen

10 reviews

1 follower

July 22, 2022

This book gives you a fantastic insight in how our gut microbiota and brain are intertwined. I'm really interested in microbes in general and also because of my education in biology and to read about their enormous influence on us and our mood is very interesting. The downside in my opinion is that the content is too much focused on only America and their statistics of diseases or when a pre- or probiotic is accepted as safe. Probably expected as the authors are American haha. In short, this book gives you a broad overview of the role our gut microbes play a role in diseases and our mood and what is going on with the 'latest' research and on top of that Scott Anderson makes a lot of fun jokes and often I was laughing out loud, what makes this book also quite light :).

Can Multi-Faith Relationships Work? | Ryvyn

Can Multi-Faith Relationships Work?

FEBRUARY 19, 2023 BY RYVYN

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Religious and faith differences can become major issues when people come to their final days before they pass or if they have not made proper preplanning for their funeral. Gender fluidity, Pagan vs Christian, and Traditional vs Evolutionary become more prominent in many aspects of estate planning. The funeral industry is probably one of the most Victorian holdovers in Western Civilization. There are many atrocities that happen at the hands of the family when religions and belief systems clash. Make sure you have filled out the appropriate documentation that states who has control of your body and you’ve made it clear what your wishes are for yourself. If you need help with this reach out to a local Death Doula. Many accredited doulas have been trained to be open and accepting of all lifestyle choices and faiths. The death bed is not the place to attempt conversion although many feel it is the perfect place to insure the eternal state of one’s soul. But is a deathbed conversion genuine when made out of fear in hopes of playing the odds that those words hold any sway should you find yourself being judged?

Happy Wife, Happy Life

Many of us were programmed with the suggestion that a happy person must have a spouse, a home with a white picket fence, a good job with a hefty bank account, two perfectly behaved children, and a dog. The strength of this perfect life rests upon the foundation of your faith. I can already feel the cringes as you begin to assume I am about to start testifying to show that I am happy and you can be too if you just join me! If you have been involved in any organized openly practiced religion in the South then you know that sharing your testimony is highly encouraged.

This in fact is my first tip for a healthy relationship, DONT! We will circle back to the psychology behind “witnessing your faith” to others.

Tip 1: Do not proselytize.

Tip 2: Respect your partner and their choice. Do not mock, scoff or show derision in any way, in regard to their faith, beliefs, or practices. Doing so disrespects something so deeply sacred to them that you could consider yourself literally stabbing them.

Tip 3: Don’t flaunt your practices in front of others. I’m not saying you should practice in secret but feel free to if you are so inclined. It’s one thing to say a silent prayer, it’s another to make an altar on the kitchen table where everyone has to watch you pray loudly over it in the middle of the morning rush hour before school and work. Spirituality is a personal practice.

Tip 4: Don’t Over-Share. This is close to the tip above, but different enough to need an explanation. In our social media culture, over-sharing is a boundary that is crossed regularly. It’s normal to want to share special experiences with the person we love and trust the most. In addition, we need to address the common aspect that if that person really loves you they would want to know and share in important parts of your life. Putting meaningful and spiritual experiences out there invites criticism, and can devalue your experience when someone questions you about it and not all of us are practiced in debate. But consider why you want to share it, is possible you are looking for validation. It’s perfectly acceptable to keep some things private.

Tip 5: Unconditional Love is Real. My parents taught me the definition of love was unconditional acceptance. That means you love every part of them even when they are not doing or being what you agree with. When you met this person, did you think, “I can only love this person once I’ve gained control of their spirituality and we are practicing together?” This is possible considering that some religions insist you marry within your faith. If this person was so great before conversion, why can’t you respect them enough to be enough just as they are? That has to do with the programming you’ve been taught and I hate to say it, but that is a cult mentality.

Do You Love Me?

This unconditional love aspect means you love them just as they are. If you see their faith as a flaw, that is actually a reflection of your issues. But let me propose a few questions to ask yourself.

Have you decided that your belief system is the best and you only want what is best for them right?
Do you really trust them to make the right decision for their own soul?
What gives you the right to judge them?
Where does that authority come from?

Now flip your point of view and answer these questions from your partner’s perspective:

Do they show a tendency to make decisions that are dangerous and unsafe?
Where does this deep desire for them to follow your faith stem?
Is this a teaching from your spiritual leaders? Is this about your need for validation?
Are they happy in their practice and spirituality?
Can you pinpoint your disapproval of actual actions or beliefs? Where does this stem from?
Can you find reasons that do not include your religious teachings?

Many Religious Groups Promote Witnessing Your Faith to Non-Believers

Let us dissect the psychological effects of this practice. Announcing your faith to those you know are likely to respond negatively requires a great deal of strength and intelligence because the usual response is that you then have to defend your faith.

This is because proselytizing is about creating separation between members vs non-members.
You realize you only feel understood and accepted within the group.
Another component is the inevitable consequences of not participating fully will bring on feelings of fear and guilt involving the eternal state of your soul. As a paranormal investigator, I can confidently promise you we do not have any proven answers to the afterlife.

In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust

Relationships are trials and blessings, now toss in religion! Photo from adobestock.com

Often these conversations should be distilled down to the understanding of how to act with Love. Is Love conditional? Is it about control or validation? Do you expect perfection or do you need to have a clone of yourself?

I recently had a difficult time in my own relationship when my partner who normally would just ignore my religious choice would, on rare occasions, scoff or be dismissive. This would, of course, anger me and make me want to defend my faith. However, I refuse to sound as if I’m trying to convert him nor do I want to discuss my private spiritual self with him either. This put me in quite a quandary as to how to deal with the situation and made me evaluate why I was angered.

My Answer

I consider my life partner to be well-educated, and thoughtful and I know he loves me. It makes sense that I hold his opinion in high regard and he often validates my choices. However, he also feels the same about me. Being the independent person I am, he never thought his opinion carried such weight that it might hurt. Nor did I consciously understand I was seeking acceptance and validation. Once I put those things in plain view… I can easily forgive him for his mistake and forgive myself for those needs. We will continue with two very separate and distinctly different faiths under the same roof and continue to love each other for the unique selves that we each choose to be.

5 Ways Your Gut Health Can Make You Happier – The Beauty Chef USA

5 Ways Your Gut Health Can Make You Happier

Our daily happiness can be dependent upon many variables. The things that can lift or lower our spirits include everything from the weather to our work situation, health, lifestyle, home life and relationships. But perhaps the biggest mood influencer of all is the food we eat.

We have long known that food has a big effect on how we feel. But science is now revealing the strong relationship between our diet, gut microbes and mental health—with studies examining how gut dysbiosis or inflammation may contribute to some mental health conditions including low moods, anxiety and depression.

Eating to please our taste buds alone is not enough. To enjoy optimal health and feel happy, we need to eat to please the trillions of microbes that reside in our digestive tract. This is because what we eat can shape and transform the relationship we have with our gut microbes. Just like our human partners, when our many microbes are happy, we feel happier too.

Our gut is a big part of who we are and has a huge influence on how we feel. Here’s why...

Our Gut Microbes Produce Neurotransmitters 신경 전달 물질

Along with digesting the food we eat, absorbing nutrients, neutralising pathogens and manufacturing some vitamins, our gut microbes produce neurotransmitters including serotonin and dopamine. In fact, it’s estimated 90% of our serotonin is produced in our gut. Along with inducing happy feelings, serotonin plays a role in gut motility, sleep, bone and cardiovascular health.

The neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) which helps reduce anxiety and stress and improves sleep is also produced by our beneficial bacteria which is why eating to nourish our bellies is even more important. Studies now suggest that consuming probiotic-rich, lacto-fermented wholefoods can even help ease symptoms of anxiety.

The Link Between Leaky Gut and Lethargy

When the lining of our gut becomes damaged—a condition known as leaky gut—endotoxins called lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and other compounds such as food antigens (including gluten and dairy) can pass through the gut wall into our bloodstream leading to systemic inflammation. This in turn can cause symptoms including lethargy, headaches and brain fog.

As studies have also shown that leaky gut can change the way immune cells in the brain work and interrupt the function of neurotransmitters—impacting our mental health—it’s essential to relieve, restore and strengthen the integrity of our gut lining by removing allergens from our diet and nourishing our microbiome with a wholefood, fibre-rich diet. Incorporating The Beauty Chef’s GUT PRIMER Inner Beauty Support is a great place to start! This daily restorative powder contains slippery elm and milk thistle, traditionally used in Western herbal medicine to soothe and repair the gut lining.

The Unhappy Gut and Stress Cycle

If we think of our gut microbiome as a garden, it plays home to a diverse range of thousands of species and strains of bacteria. When our inner garden is well balanced, we have a better chance of enjoying optimal health, happiness and wellbeing. An imbalance, however, can lead to gut health issues such as leaky gut which studies show may contribute to imbalances in our mood, too.

Our diet and lifestyle choices however, can have a positive impact on our bacterial composition. The gut-brain connection illustrates how stress can cause an unhappy gut—but also how an unhappy gut can lead to stress. This is why learning to better manage stress through regular exercise and eating a nutrient-dense wholefoods diet can help to improve microbial diversity and subsequently, boost our mood.

Misplaced Microbes Affect Our Moods, Too

While most of our gut bacteria are located in the large intestine (or colon), studies show an overgrowth of bacteria higher up in the small intestine—known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)—may contribute to a range of symptoms ranging from malabsorption of nutrients, bloating, leaky gut, nausea and diarrhoea to mood issues and depression.

Similarly, candida albicans is an overgrowth of yeast in the digestive tract that can be caused by poor diet, medications or compromised gut and immune health. As candida can damage the gut wall and cause leaky gut, it’s another condition that studies show may contribute to mood imbalances.

The Ups and Downs of Blood Sugar Issues

Symptoms of a blood sugar imbalance can manifest in a number of ways–feeling tired, irritable, experiencing headaches or having difficulty concentrating as well as energy crashes. And while there are many factors that can contribute to blood sugar issues, our gut bacteria play a vital role in regulating this process. Therefore, if our gut bacteria are out of balance , it can be challenging to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

But maintaining a healthy, balanced microbiome can help. Begin by limiting refined sugars and processed foods and substituting simple carbohydrates for wholegrains. Adding a source of clean protein to your meals and snacking on nuts and seeds will also help keep blood sugars remain steady. As a result, you’ll likely find your energy levels also remain more consistent throughout the day–as well as your mood.

Is your gut microbiome the key to health and happiness? | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian

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Health & wellbeing

Is your gut microbiome the key to health and happiness?

Research suggests the vast ecosystem of organisms that lives in our digestive systems might be as complex and influential as our genes in everything from mental health to athleticism and obesity. But is ‘poop doping’ really the way ahead?

Amy Fleming

Tue 7 Nov 2017 04.37 AEDT

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John Cryan was originally trained as a neuroscientist to focus on everything from the neck upwards. But eight years ago, an investigation into irritable bowel syndrome drew his gaze towards the gut. Like people with depression, those with IBS often report having experienced early-life trauma, so in 2009, Cryan and his colleagues set about traumatising rat pups by separating them from their mothers. They found that the microbiome of these animals in adulthood had decreased diversity, he says.

The gut microbiome is a vast ecosystem of organisms such as bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses and protozoans that live in our digestive pipes, which collectively weigh up to 2kg (heavier than the average brain).

gut microbiome

위장관 내에 존재하며 미생물과 미생물, 숙주와 미생물 간의 복잡한 상호관계를 이루는 미생물군. 인간 마이크로바이옴의 일부

It is increasingly treated by scientists as an organ in its own right. Each gut contains about 100tn bacteria, many of which are vital, breaking down food and toxins, making vitamins and training our immune systems.

Cryan’s study didn’t attract much attention, but a few years later, Japanese scientists bred germ-free animals that grew up to have an elevated stress response. This alerted Cryan and his colleagues that they might be able to target the microbiome to alleviate some of the symptoms of stress, he says.

The hope is that it may one day be possible to diagnose some brain diseases and mental health problems by analysing gut bacteria, and to treat them – or at least augment the effects of drug treatments – with specific bacteria. Cryan and his colleague Ted Dinan call these mood-altering germs “psychobiotics”, and have co-written a book with the American science writer Scott C Anderson called The Psychobiotic Revolution.

The psychobiotics of the title are probiotics that some scientists believe may have a positive effect on the mind. Probiotics are bacteria associated with healthy gut flora – such as the Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis we see advertised in “live” yoghurt. More diverse bacterial cocktails can also be bought as food supplements, but they’re expensive.

Cryan and his team went on to work with germ-free mice. “In these mice, the brains don’t develop properly,” he says.

“Their nerve cells don’t talk to each other appropriately, thus implicating the microbiome in a variety of disorders ... We’ve also shown changes in anxiety behaviour, fear behaviour, learning, stress response, the blood-brain barrier. We found a deficit in social behaviour, so for social interactions we have an appropriate repertoire of bacteria in the gut as well.”

Over the past decade, research has suggested the gut microbiome might potentially be as complex and influential as our genes when it comes to our health and happiness. As well as being implicated in mental health issues, it’s also thought the gut microbiome may influence our athleticism, weight, immune function, inflammation, allergies, metabolism and appetite.[how??]

The past month alone has seen studies linking the gut microbiome with post-traumatic stress disorder (people with PTSD had lower than normal levels of three types of gut bacteria); fathoming its connection with autoimmune disease; finding that tea alters the gut microbiome in anti-obesogenic ways; showing that “ridiculously healthy” 90-year-olds have the gut microbiome of young adults; and how targeting mosquitos’ gut flora could help beat malaria by increasing the malaria-attacking bacteria in their guts. And last week, two groundbreaking studies provided evidence that gut biodiversity influences whether or not immunotherapy drugs shrink tumours in cancer patients.

One story that caught the public’s imagination during the summer implied that “poop doping” (AKA microbiome enhancement via faecal transplant; what has been delicately described as a “reverse enema”) could become the new blood doping for elite cyclists. Lauren Petersen, a research scientist at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Connecticut, looked at the stool samples of 35 cyclists, comparing those of elite and amateur cyclists. So sure was she that she would benefit from having some of the bacteria found in the gut microbiome of elite cyclists that she doped herself with the faeces one had donated. An endurance mountain biker herself, she swears (but can’t prove scientifically) that this took her from feeling too weak to train to winning pro cycling races. However, when you consider that one gram of faeces is home to more bacteria than there are humans on Earth – and how little we understand about the vast majority of them, good and bad – this is definitely not recommended.

An understanding of the gut’s importance to our wellbeing now fuels a global probiotic market projected to grow to $64bn (£48bn) by 2023. This month in Washington DC, the microbiome is a headlining topic at the world’s largest international neuroscience conference, for its potential role in helping to diagnose and slow the progress of degenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

The challenge lies in pinpointing the cause and effect of specific bacteria, and translating the results into treatments. This isn’t easy. Giulia Enders, who wrote the international bestseller Gut, says: “We can check the stool for typical pathogens that would cause diarrhoea or viruses, but we have no idea what all the seemingly normal bugs are doing. We don’t really know which bacteria does what in who, so it is a big experiment.”

It’s a long, expensive process to test each strain in isolation, so scientists have started with small-scale human studies. Cryan tested Lactobacillus rhamnosus, which had reduced stress in his mice, on 29 people and found no benefit when compared with a placebo. But when he gave 22 healthy men a strain called Bifidobacterium longum 1714 for four weeks, the subjects presented lower levels of anxiety and stress hormone than before, and made between two and five fewer mistakes in memory tests. It looks as though B longum 1714 could be a bona fide psychobiotic, although Cryan says larger-scale human studies are needed.

Philip WJ Burnet, associate professor at the psychiatry department at the University of Oxford, has had promising results testing the effects of prebiotics on mood. Prebiotics are complex carbohydrates that humans can’t digest, but that probiotic bacteria thrive on. Essentially, prebiotics “are dietary fibres that feed bacteria already in our gut,” he says. “I argued that instead of proliferating the growth of single species as in taking a probiotic, if you eat these fibres you grow lots of species of good bacteria, so you’re more likely to get a hit.”

A very small, short trial – three weeks and involving 45 healthy volunteers – tested a commercially sold prebiotic called Bimuno, and suggested this might have the potential to reduce anxiety. “When you give someone an antidepressant,” says Burnet, “before you see a change in their depression or anxiety, it changes some underlying psychological mechanisms. You’re more vigilant to the positive, for example, if you’re on an antidepressant or are happy.”

In his study, people without the supplement or in the placebo group paid more attention to negative imagery because, he says, “I think we’re naturally morbid … But those on Bimuno paid more attention to the positive.” He is cautious to point out, however, that when people take antidepressants, these early changes don’t necessarily lead to their depression and anxiety symptoms improving. He also stresses: “Prebiotics, or indeed any dietary supplements, are unlikely to replace the drugs used for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses. But they might be useful in helping medication work better in people who do not respond very well to them.”

Should the worried well be hitting the prebiotics? “More studies are needed to test if they are a quick fix for brain disorders per se,” he says. “But if someone is unwell or feeling down from a cold, because the bacteria modulate the immune system, a quick fix would be prebiotics.” People hate hearing it, he says, but supplements can’t replace a healthy, varied diet. Lentils, asparagus and jerusalem artichokes are examples of natural prebiotic sources. “But who wants to eat a bowl of jerusalem artichokes when you can just pour some prebiotic powder on your cornflakes or on top of your McDonald’s?”

This year, the health journalist Michael Mosley tested the sleep-enhancing effects of prebiotics for his documentary The Truth About Sleep, and Burnet oversaw the five-day experiment. At the start of the trial, Mosley spent 21% of his time in bed awake – by the end that had shrunk to 8%. Of all the strategies Mosley tested to treat his insomnia, he found prebiotics the most effective. Bimuno promptly sold out.

“I’m still getting people asking if I want to do a full-scale study and wanting to be a participant, or saying after trying Bimuno, ‘I’ve never slept better in all my life,’” says Burnet. But after getting the Mosley thumbs-up, the company has no need to fund a study. “A bit of a bummer,” says Burnet. “I don’t know if it really works or if it’s mass hysteria.”

There have been further suggestions that the microbiome could also be the key to athletic ability. The APC Microbiome Institute in Cork published a paper in 2014 reporting its findings that the gut flora of the Ireland rugby team was more diverse than that of a healthy control group. So will people in future follow Peterson’s example and experiment with faecal transplants from top athletes? It’s not something you can do at home. The donor’s blood and stool needs to be screened for disease before being expertly delivered to the colon via a colonscope. Sedation is required. The trouble with faecal transplants, says Orla O’Sullivan, one of the APC researchers, is “you just don’t know what you’re transferring. If the donor has some undiagnosed mental health issue, then that’s what you’re going to be getting in your poo.” She mentions companies that are developing “artificial poop”, as a safer option that is more likely to be approved by health authorities. “A definite angle for this could be identifying probiotics that are elevated in athletes and that are obviously giving them some benefit, and putting them into products, whether it be for other athletes or the general public.”

The advantage of a faecal transplant is that you are inserting a ready-made microbiome into your gut, whereas oral supplements can’t be guaranteed to take up residence, and usually contain only one or a few strains. To make long-term changes to your gut flora, however, faecal transplants cannot work alone. With a bad diet, sedentary lifestyle or a dose of antibiotics, chances are your gut flora will be stripped of its diversity. As Jane A Foster, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences at McMaster University, Ontario, says: “The microbiome is partly driven by our own genetics, partly by environmental factors – stress, diet, age, gender. All these things affect the composition and they probably also affect the function of the bacteria that are there.”

Enders thinks it’s only a matter of time before bacteria supplements are available to support weight loss. Bacteria associated with leanness and obesity have already been identified (if you give mice bacteria from an obese human, the mice will become obese too; and if you give mice bacteria from a lean human, they will stay lean). And the common Lactobacillus reuteri increases levels of leptin, a hormone that makes you feel full up, while lowering the hunger hormone ghrelin. The bacteria could even be controlling our appetites, sending amino acids to our brains to trigger dopamine and serotonin rewards when we give them a treat.

In her book, Enders writes that multiple studies “have shown that satiety-signal transmitters increase considerably when we eat the foods that our bacteria prefer”. That is not to say, she warns, that “other aspects of weight gain should be put aside, but it could be a great additional help”.

It’s interesting that, even though there’s more work to be done, gut experts pay heed to current hypotheses in their personal lives. Enders, who analysed her healthy 97-year-old grandma’s stool out of scientific curiosity, says: “If I had a disease that research linked one specific bacteria to, I would still want to know if I had it. Like Prevotella copri with rheumatism or Acinetobacter baumannii with multiple sclerosis. But it is unclear if tackling this would help after the disease is already happening.”

Foster, who is working towards using the gut microbiome as a biomarker for predicting and diagnosing mental health problems, says she doesn’t take probiotic supplements (“I am stress-free, resilient, high-energy – I don’t need one”), although “probioticking” is a verb in her household. “I have two adolescents, a 16- and a 19-year-old. I probiotic them both at times. If one is feeling under the weather, she does a three-week probiotic course along with extra vitamins. She already has a fabulous diet, but if you feel a little bit down, sure, I would completely recommend it.”

They are all keen to point out, however, that no matter how repetitive the advice, and difficult to achieve in the west, a varied diet rich in fresh vegetables and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, along with exercise and stress management, is the route to sustained gut (and general) health.

Cryan’s official line is that we are five years off cracking the human gut microbiome, but of course there’s no way of knowing. Could it be a similar case to that of the human genome – another great hope in predicting disease and personalised preventative medicine, but which becomes more impenetrably complex the more we learn about it? “It could be,” he admits. “The only difference is that, unlike your genome, which you can’t do an awful lot with, your microbiome is potentially modifiable.”

Enders agrees. “I think the belief that many or even all diseases are rooted in only the gut bacteria will have to turn out as wrong,” she says. “Humans are wonderfully complex animals with multiple connections to mind, food, life and the environment. The cool thing is that it is far easier to change the gut compared with our genes.”

The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection will be published on 30 November by National Geographic (£17.99). To order a copy for £15.29 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.