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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

#101
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was skeptical of this when I first heard of it several years ago. It sounded just like every other popular diet does: “Just (don’t) eat this certain food, and you will feel amazing!” But I have several family members on it right now, and they all report feeling WAY better. And this is after years of dealing with IBS type problems too.

Low FODMAP works, but it’s precisely because it’s unlike all other “diets”. It’s a systematic removal of basically all short-chain sugars. The problem with it, as someone who was instructed to follow it, is that it’s extremely unintuitive to know what foods are low or high FODMAP without the list. Because of this, it’s really easy to make mistakes unless you consult the list prior to eating. So it definitely gives po…

As someone on FODMAP, what works for me is to do breakfast/lunch meal replacement with low FODMAP shakes (like Huel), then get a few FODMAP cookbooks and make dinners out of that. Works great and is fairly painless - lots of delicious meals can be made that are low fodmap, fortunately. It's really difficult to avoid FODMAPs when eating out, western food loves onions and garlic for instance - for these cases, I use alpha-glucosidase enzyme tablets (I take 2x 350mg tablets with a meal).

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#102

I've seen these studies time and time again. I do wonder what are the practical steps one takes to "repair" or "renew" their gut? I'm not a fan of drugs being the cure. In fact, I don't think they are the first solution people should hope for or supplement with unless it's not practical to get them in a natural way. I feel like we see more and more gut related issues due to depression & depression's little cousin anx…

It seems to be a case of lots of variety in your diet, ideally lots of different vegetables, nuts, pulses etc, and cutting down/out highly processed foods. Variety seems to be the spice of life, quite literally.

I've just finished reading Prof. Tim Spector's "The Diet Myth". The book's title is a little hyperbolic, but it works through all the major food groups and how we eat and talks about both the historic research and diet fads of the past (like Ansel Keys research that sparked the obsession with low fat foods) and how all these different foodstuffs tie into our gut bacteria, which in turn affects us.

Tim's "thing" is the human biome, but I didn't read it as him touting it as a cureall, but as something that is more important than almost all of us are aware, and which has been seriously neglected to the point that it's having an impact on many aspects of our health. He's also pretty open that a lot of this is still very much up in the air at the moment, and lots more study is needed to really understand many of the effects. He also seems pretty sceptical of the medicallisation and the obsession with isolating one factor and packaging it up as a supplement or magic pill that will solve your health issues.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#103

Just another data point, but my journey through digestive issues and recovery was kicked off by the worst depression and burnout I ever experienced, which started in 2019 and lasted 3 years. My best guess for what happened is that work stress, excessive celebration and coping with the cognitive dissonance of the pre-COVID era and subsequent pandemic, combined with overtraining and the misuse of protein shakes in plac…

Insightful journey. Can you please share your discoveries and what do you eat now!

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#104
post #69

> Thus, the newest study seems to be “further proof” that inflammation caused by gut microbes can influence mood Of course it bloody can - if you have IBS or any number of other gut-related problems, believe me you are very likely to be depressed, because the symptoms of these are very nasty and humiliating. This does not mean that the bacteria are directly affecting the CNS. Also: > Kiebdiella It's Klebsiella

It seems pretty obvious from reading the article in its entirety that the claim is that the inflammation is affecting mood directly, not via nasty and humiliating gastro symptoms.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#105

Just another data point, but my journey through digestive issues and recovery was kicked off by the worst depression and burnout I ever experienced, which started in 2019 and lasted 3 years. My best guess for what happened is that work stress, excessive celebration and coping with the cognitive dissonance of the pre-COVID era and subsequent pandemic, combined with overtraining and the misuse of protein shakes in plac…

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences and it sounds like you learned a lot from firsthand knowledge. But, respectfully asking, what does inflammatory foods or poor eating habits have to do with GMO foods?

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#106

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...

[dead]

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#107
post #22
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The only effective probiotics I've found are very expensive,

But how do you know if they're effective?

That's always been my question.

What is the effect one should notice?

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious, why do you think that?

Playing devil's advocate, do we have any reason to believe that people who are genetically more succeptible to depression aren't also more likely to have this sort of gut via genetics? That would result in this correlation. Perhaps improving your gut biome wouldn't actually help with depression?

Agreed. No one knows.

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#109

Just another data point, but my journey through digestive issues and recovery was kicked off by the worst depression and burnout I ever experienced, which started in 2019 and lasted 3 years. My best guess for what happened is that work stress, excessive celebration and coping with the cognitive dissonance of the pre-COVID era and subsequent pandemic, combined with overtraining and the misuse of protein shakes in plac…

Sorry if I didn't understand correctly, but how did you make the alcohol (celebration), work stress, pandemic stress > GMO link?

Re: Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study

#110

I've seen these studies time and time again. I do wonder what are the practical steps one takes to "repair" or "renew" their gut? I'm not a fan of drugs being the cure. In fact, I don't think they are the first solution people should hope for or supplement with unless it's not practical to get them in a natural way. I feel like we see more and more gut related issues due to depression & depression's little cousin anx…

It seems to be a case of lots of variety in your diet, ideally lots of different vegetables, nuts, pulses etc, and cutting down/out highly processed foods. Variety seems to be the spice of life, quite literally. I've just finished reading Prof. Tim Spector's "The Diet Myth". The book's title is a little hyperbolic, but it works through all the major food groups and how we eat and talks about both the historic researc…

I've read similar books. Will pick this one up though. Thanks for the recommendation!
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