Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 196 posts

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#21

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

valarauko wrote: post #14
yosito wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Constipation, headaches, stress, bloating, anxiety, depression, fatigue, weight loss, hair loss, rashes. I don't know what the cause was, but the gut-brain theory fits all of my experience and treatments aimed at improving my gut bacteria helped the most, and there has definitely been a strong connection between how my gut is feeling and how my mind is feeling.

If you're experiencing an improvement, great. It seems reasonable that your gut issues (if nothing else) could be improved by addressing the gut biome. Since you've had some luck with traditional medicines, I can share my $0.02 about the traditional system I'm somewhat familiar with. In traditional Indian folk medicine, the focus for practically everything seems to revolve around improving gut health. It's a common b…

> like avoiding certain vegetables

I've never heard of this. Western medicine says "all the vegetables, all the time". What are some of the vegetables people told to avoid? Genuinely curious.

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#22

Post by ohyoutravel »

I read a book about all this recently called I Contain Multitudes. The thesis was that the gut biome controlled a lot, and given the evidence presented I thought it was compelling (as a layman) though not actionable. Based on that one piece of information I am not surprised by the OP.

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#23

Post by popotamonga »

graeme wrote: post #17
popotamonga wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got the opposite experience. I have IBD and recently started on some potent probiotics. Suddenly my energy and focus went up 1000%. So this is how regular people healthy live wow. I used to be lethargic all the time for 30+ years.

Which one was it? I’ve heard about Vsl-3 as being medical grade

That one exactly. Expensive as crap and hard to find in my country but it's priceless.

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#24

Post by [deleted] »

popotamonga wrote: post #13
yosito wrote: post #7

In the last three years, something related to my gut-brain connection got fucked. I'm not sure if it was some kind of post-viral inflammation causing stress, or stress of isolation causing inflammation. But it's definitely a two way street and mine got completely stuck in a feedback loop. The mainstream medical system failed to help me. Eventually some functional medicine doctors managed to help me improve via diet,…

I got the opposite experience. I have IBD and recently started on some potent probiotics. Suddenly my energy and focus went up 1000%. So this is how regular people healthy live wow. I used to be lethargic all the time for 30+ years.

[deleted]

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#25

Post by wxnx »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #21
valarauko wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're experiencing an improvement, great. It seems reasonable that your gut issues (if nothing else) could be improved by addressing the gut biome. Since you've had some luck with traditional medicines, I can share my $0.02 about the traditional system I'm somewhat familiar with. In traditional Indian folk medicine, the focus for practically everything seems to revolve around improving gut health. It's a common b…

> like avoiding certain vegetables I've never heard of this. Western medicine says "all the vegetables, all the time". What are some of the vegetables people told to avoid? Genuinely curious.

Even in Western medicine (at the research stage, at least), that is not necessarily true in patients suffering from certain conditions.

There is some evidence (in the sense of evidence-based medicine) that a low-FODMAP (fermentable *saccharides) diet reduces symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. [1]

As far as vegetables go, according to one site high-FODMAP vegetables include alliums and artichokes. [2]

It is worth noting that the authors of the linked review paper caution that it is unknown whether a low-FODMAP diet may have long-term adverse effects.

[1] doi:10.2147/CEG.S86798

[2] https://www.monashfodmap.com/about-fodmap-and-ibs/high-and-l...

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#26

Post by sgarman »

hanniabu wrote: post #19
yosito wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Constipation, headaches, stress, bloating, anxiety, depression, fatigue, weight loss, hair loss, rashes. I don't know what the cause was, but the gut-brain theory fits all of my experience and treatments aimed at improving my gut bacteria helped the most, and there has definitely been a strong connection between how my gut is feeling and how my mind is feeling.

Have you ever done a hydrogen methane breath test? Curious if it could be SIBO-C.

This is a bit of a vent so apologies in advance but as someone who has been though the same thing OP has I have heard this suggestion from literally everyone. Even if you do the test and it's test results are accurate it's not 100% clear what to do with that information - it's mostly the same stuff OP would have or did already try.

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#27

Post by lumb63 »

ohyoutravel wrote: post #22

I read a book about all this recently called I Contain Multitudes. The thesis was that the gut biome controlled a lot, and given the evidence presented I thought it was compelling (as a layman) though not actionable. Based on that one piece of information I am not surprised by the OP.

I started I Contain Multitudes and ended up reading 10% Human instead. It’s more human-centric. Fascinating either way. I suspect we are starting to see the first glimmers of a vast space of microbiome interactions.

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#28

Post by kzrdude »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #21
valarauko wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're experiencing an improvement, great. It seems reasonable that your gut issues (if nothing else) could be improved by addressing the gut biome. Since you've had some luck with traditional medicines, I can share my $0.02 about the traditional system I'm somewhat familiar with. In traditional Indian folk medicine, the focus for practically everything seems to revolve around improving gut health. It's a common b…

> like avoiding certain vegetables I've never heard of this. Western medicine says "all the vegetables, all the time". What are some of the vegetables people told to avoid? Genuinely curious.

Autoimmune Protocol diets commonly favour leafy greens a lot while telling you to avoid too starchy veg and everything in the potato-tomato family ("nightshades"). Very abbreviated it would be "eat green veg, fish and meat."

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#29

Post by kzrdude »

mcculley wrote: post #16
goatlover wrote: post #2

There's a hundred million neurons in our guts. It makes me think arguments about being brains in a vat, and treating the brain as a biological computer with inputs form the senses misses the fact that the brain is part of the nervous system extending throughout the body, and not some isolated system. An envatted brain isolated from the body is likely not going to function properly. The brain can only properly be unde…

Also, hormones have an enormous effect on the brain. The speculation I have read about immortality through brain vat tech does not address that such brains might not have any reason to want to live.

Right, one has to assume that a good vat for the brain looks pretty much like the body itself :)

Re: Some gut bacteria appear to communicate with the brain

#30

Post by d23 »

popotamonga wrote: post #23
graeme wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which one was it? I’ve heard about Vsl-3 as being medical grade

That one exactly. Expensive as crap and hard to find in my country but it's priceless.

What's up with this? https://vsl3.com/assets/v1/patient/files/FactSheetVSL3Jun202...

Just went to their site and it sketched me out a bit to read this.

Post reply on HN