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

Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

pnas.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 152 posts

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#41

Post by AaronAPU »

kilroy123 wrote: post #32
pogue wrote: post #19

I've seen probiotic supplements that have strains that claim to help with anxiety and depression, but I've never really looked into them because I'm quite skeptical they do anything. But if anyone is familiar with them and has any feedback I'd be interested to hear it.

I've had a LOT of gut problems in my life. I have a physically broken stomach, have had to have stomach surgery in the past, and probably will have to do it again soon. Most probiotics I've taken did nothing. The only ones that seem to actually work for me are these: https://drohhiraprobiotics.com/ Not sure why it works, but anecdotally, they do. Other things that have helped significantly – cutting out alcohol.

yeah I had serious gut problems for years and no probiotic ever did the slightest thing. Anecdotally I can’t differentiate them from snake oil.

But Metamucil changed my life dramatically over a span of a few weeks. Never had the type of symptoms it’s indicated for, which everyone I mention it to just assumes. But it fixed me somehow.

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#42

Post by h2zizzle »

theptip wrote: post #24
jjk166 wrote: post #16

I think it makes sense that our microbiome should be able to trigger such a response. If your microbiome is changing, it means that some microbe is gaining numbers it didn't previously have, and your current bodily functions, such as your immune system, aren't stopping it. That doesn't necessarily mean your immune system is compromised, but if it is then it would probably be good not to spend a lot of time around oth…

The problem with Evolutionary Psychology is that it’s easy to construct this sort of “just so” story for pretty much any causal link, and they are not falsifiable. IMO the simpler hypothesis here is that this isn’t anything adaptive, it’s just another example of how biology is like spaghetti code; changing one chemical signal will affect an essentially random set of downstream systems, some of which can be causally c…

Could also be like climate change, where it correctly describes a broad phenomenon, but cannot be used to identify or classify any individual event. E.g., Wildfires are probably getting worse because of climate change, but it's difficult to say if the Pacific Palisades fire would not have happened in a cooler global climate.

So, is microbiome-mediated social anxiety selected for as an advantageous trait for societies subject to communicable diseases and the travails of nomadism? Maybe. Did YOUR microbiome-mediated social anxiety arise because it was advantageous for your community? Probably impossible to say.

Also, a hole in GP's logic: you would expect protective social anxiety to arise in people whose situation hasn't much changed except that they've encountered people whose has (as with sedentary villagers encountering nomads who may or may not be about to ransack their settlement).

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#44

Post by amanaplanacanal »

jvm___ wrote: post #10
ninetyninenine wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The experiment looked to be the other way around. If you introduced new microbiota from patients with SAD this caused SAD in mice. So introducing new microbiota won’t solve the problem. The theory that needs to be tested is that we know microbiota can switch SAD on, but does removal of said microbiota turn it off? It needs to be an antibiotic cleansing. It can even be DIY. People can try this on themselves. I think t…

Do we get gut bacteria from the people around us? Where does a newborn get their gut bacteria from?

Newborns get a lot from their mother. They have very little stomach acid, so whatever they are getting goes straight through to their gut.

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#45

Post by h2zizzle »

kilroy123 wrote: post #32
pogue wrote: post #19

I've seen probiotic supplements that have strains that claim to help with anxiety and depression, but I've never really looked into them because I'm quite skeptical they do anything. But if anyone is familiar with them and has any feedback I'd be interested to hear it.

I've had a LOT of gut problems in my life. I have a physically broken stomach, have had to have stomach surgery in the past, and probably will have to do it again soon. Most probiotics I've taken did nothing. The only ones that seem to actually work for me are these: https://drohhiraprobiotics.com/ Not sure why it works, but anecdotally, they do. Other things that have helped significantly – cutting out alcohol.

Fermented foods are way more helpful IME. I've even found kombucha protective against mildly spoiled food.

I can also attest to having my first alcoholic drink in a while and it screwing me up for a week.

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#46

Post by veunes »

Tarsul wrote: post #40

I know from personal experience that eating sugar does induce more anxiety in me. This might sound weird but I can "physically feel" in my head a certain anxiety when e.g. I think about something awkward. This "physical feel" stopped being there when I stopped eating sweets for a few weeks. One reason why I try to keep my sugar intake down (the other being in danger of getting diabetes...). Thus, I wholly believe thi…

It's wild how much your gut can mess with your brain chemistry

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#47

Post by amanaplanacanal »

skrebbel wrote: post #29

Offtopic but can we please stop and appreciate the excellent acronym "SAD"? It's gotta be right up there with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia in the gallery of best disease names.

It also stands for Standard American Diet. So there you go.

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#48

Post by frankish »

Tarsul wrote: post #40

I know from personal experience that eating sugar does induce more anxiety in me. This might sound weird but I can "physically feel" in my head a certain anxiety when e.g. I think about something awkward. This "physical feel" stopped being there when I stopped eating sweets for a few weeks. One reason why I try to keep my sugar intake down (the other being in danger of getting diabetes...). Thus, I wholly believe thi…

Can you explain your jump from gut microbiota to sugar? Aside from sugar being one food that passes through our digestion, I'm not certain why you have singled it out.

Re: Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

#50

Post by veunes »

jjk166 wrote: post #16

I think it makes sense that our microbiome should be able to trigger such a response. If your microbiome is changing, it means that some microbe is gaining numbers it didn't previously have, and your current bodily functions, such as your immune system, aren't stopping it. That doesn't necessarily mean your immune system is compromised, but if it is then it would probably be good not to spend a lot of time around oth…

Makes me wonder how many other "maladaptive" responses today actually had adaptive roots in a different context
Post reply on HN