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Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

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Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#21
post #15

Tangential: Is there any evidence that pro biotic foods or supplements can increase gut health? Given the evident importance of gut health, I wonder whether it's worth using something like this, to grab a random example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Restored-Bio-Cultures/dp/B082SZXBF2...

Sauerkraut is simple to make and cabbage is cheap. https://www.livestrong.com/article/413921-does-sauerkraut-ha...

Or Kimchi if you're into Korean food.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#22
post #15

Tangential: Is there any evidence that pro biotic foods or supplements can increase gut health? Given the evident importance of gut health, I wonder whether it's worth using something like this, to grab a random example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Restored-Bio-Cultures/dp/B082SZXBF2...

Sauerkraut is simple to make and cabbage is cheap. https://www.livestrong.com/article/413921-does-sauerkraut-ha...

I brew my own kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and occasionally kombucha. Of those kefir is the most demonstrably effective, all of them are cheap.

The only effective probiotics I've found are very expensive, costing around $120/mo.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#23
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sauerkraut is simple to make and cabbage is cheap. https://www.livestrong.com/article/413921-does-sauerkraut-ha...

Or Kimchi if you're into Korean food.

Do you have an easy to make recipe?

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#24

Since diet can affect the microbiome of the gut and I can't imagine how gut bacteria affect moods (although I'm open to the idea I suppose) I'd wager it is actually diet and nutritional input that affects mood as well as the gut bacteria. Makes more sense to me that your mood can be affected by your diet, and what we are measuring is the altered microbiome of the gut because of the diet.

..." I can't imagine how gut bacteria affect moods"...

But you can imagine looking at a picture and feeling hungry.

In addition to our fast new electrical nervous system for rapid response there is the older slower endocrine system from when we were just bags of chemicals coordinating with concentration gradients (still are, but were).

visual -> brain -> signals gut -> gut makes molecules to get ready -> molecules detected report to brain -> you drool

Moods depend on the chemical balance of small molecules bacteria eat sleep and poop small small molecules.

To consider that after billions of years of coexisting we, both multi cell & single cell, have not adapted to responding each others's small molecules is unthinkable

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#25

Tangential: Is there any evidence that pro biotic foods or supplements can increase gut health? Given the evident importance of gut health, I wonder whether it's worth using something like this, to grab a random example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Restored-Bio-Cultures/dp/B082SZXBF2...

Probiotic and gut biome research is all over the place.

It’s possible to find some studies showing correlations, but it’s harder to find successful replications of those studies.

Some probiotics have been shown to temporarily alter gut flora, but it usually reverts after the probiotic is stopped. Dietary and activity changes are generally good at improving the biome.

It doesn’t help that one of the commercial guy biome measuring companies basically turned out to be fraudulent a few years ago. Even some of the public efforts to measure correlations are suspect or bunk because they relied on these services.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#26

or depression causes this bacteria to proliferate more easily? I see nothing in that research showing causation. It doesn't invalidate their correlation though.

"One of them, Morganella, was significantly increased in a microbial survey of the 181 people in the study who _later_ developed depression."

they would have been diagnosed with depression first leading to increase in morganella, if it was the other way around? agree this could be correlation, but I guess thats why they say that the field is still in its infancy.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#27
post #19
post #10

For those curious, morganella is the main culprit listed here, it seems. Wikipedia isn't clear to me on how one gets this in your biome. Outside of other susp conditions. :(

My personal, completely unsubstantiated take is: your diet allows certain bacteria to thrive (or not). It’s less about trying to avoid the bad ones and more about trying to nurture the good ones. One incredible thing you can do for your gut is eat more fiber; which the vast majority of Americans don’t. Try psyllium husk powder (the stuff in Metamucil). Eat less refined sugar and saturated fat; eat more raw and fermen…

That is as may be, however, this study shows that removing that bacteria helps with mood disorder. And, there is no evidence that diet gives you this bacteria. Nor that it can help remove this one, either.

That is, discussion of diet is a bit of a non sequitur. Not wrong, but also not necessarily relevant.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#28

Tangential: Is there any evidence that pro biotic foods or supplements can increase gut health? Given the evident importance of gut health, I wonder whether it's worth using something like this, to grab a random example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Restored-Bio-Cultures/dp/B082SZXBF2...

As a fellow comment says - its all over the place and kind of hard to say, see [1] saying they are useless but lots of studies saying they are useful .

Personally as someone with IBS, I have tried many probiotics over the years and have mixed results - most of them were useless but for some time I found one or 2 that worked but I couldnt say for sure if they worked due to other factors (for e.g generally healthier food, lifestyle, mindset etc). You would have to try it out for weeks to see their effect (according to studies that say it work).

The doctors I spoke to though gave me strong probiotics (>100 billion CFU, for e.g something like [2]). I found anything that had 1 or 10 billion CFU to be pretty much useless.

I think you should work on your diet before taking probiotics. I dont think I am lactose intolerant, milk gives me bad bloating but yogurt doesnt. Yogurt worked for me over the course of weeks, kefir and sauerkrat gave me mega-bloating.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45434753 [2] https://www.amazon.com/Visbiome-Potency-Probiotic-Shipped-Sh...

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#30

Tangential: Is there any evidence that pro biotic foods or supplements can increase gut health? Given the evident importance of gut health, I wonder whether it's worth using something like this, to grab a random example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Restored-Bio-Cultures/dp/B082SZXBF2...

Anecdata: Tried various probiotics, no help. Pre-biotics however, have been huge. Search for "resistant starch".

What was your diet like when you were taking them? It's been observed in some studies that delivered mixed results that responders had better diets (i.e. more bacteria friendly components in the diet such as indigestible carbs from vegetables/legumes/fruit etc) whereas non-responders had weaker diets in terms of providing the gut microbes nutrients.
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