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Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

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Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#71

Post by calinet6 »

jmhain wrote: post #4

Be very careful with probiotics; just loading your system with random strains of bacteria from your local health food store can have serious consequences. I have IBS and an anxiety disorder that had been in remission for years. I tried Primadophilus Optima and it wrecked me. I went from a mild IBS-C to severe IBS-D, and my panic attacks came back with an intensity unlike anything I've ever experienced. I don't doubt…

Just to provide an alternate anecdote, I take probiotics fairly regularly (one to three in sequence every 1-2 weeks, or whenever I get out of whack) and have only had neutral or positive results. The flora in the probiotic is really nothing that shouldn't already be in a healthy gut, although of course you do want to be very careful as it's clear that your gut micro-biome is very important to your overall health. Just another data point.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#72

Post by calinet6 »

spingsprong wrote: post #10
curiousDog wrote: post #2

I must agree with this. I've been suffering from IBS for a while now. Anytime I have a flare up, I most certainly have severe anxiety (and it's not just anxiety of having to deal with the flare up. Anxiety symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, weakness just show up). I've tried a few probiotics but didn't see any noticeable difference though.

I'm just asking, but is there any chance the connection is the reverse? Stress and anxiety can cause digestive symptoms.

I think this vicious cycle is one of the biggest human bugs around. It's a malfunctioning recursive negative feedback loop.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#74

Post by oldmanjay »

Paul_Dessert wrote: post #42
Panoramix wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, they acknowledged the conflict of interest. Are you suggesting, based on zero evidence, that their findings were somehow fabricated - a claim that if true would ruin the careers and lives of the scientists at hand? While not unthinkable, it is a type of conspiracy theory thought. Should you have a problem with their methods, data acquisition, etc etc. then it would be a completely different story, but t…

I'm not arguing the science. It may be 100% correct. My issue the fact that a corporation with a very big upside is funding the research. That's all. Think about it.

You'll have to do better than "think about it" if you want your reasons to make sense outside of your own head.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#75

Post by mtdewcmu »

ggchappell wrote: post #57
bmm6o wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "syndrome" is a classification of related signs and symptoms without relating them to a single underlying cause, so yeah, that's what it means. As more is learned about the causes, different disorders can be removed from the syndrome.

True. But note that "can be" does not mean "will be". For example, AIDS is a syndrome (thus the "S") whose causes have been pretty well understood for some time. However, it is still defined as a syndrome.

It's maybe worth pointing out that syndrome is completely absent any value judgment (in keeping with the scientific tradition of modern medicine); it's literally just a combination of symptoms that occur together.

From http://dictionary.reference.com/: Greek syndromḗ concurrence, combination

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#76

Post by ar4s »

jmhain wrote: post #50
erichmond wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IBS seems like the doctors way of saying "We don't know what your problem is". Doctors told me I had IBS for 10 years, then a friend suggested to stop eating wheat, and 95% of my symptoms went away. I'm actually about to start testing a FODMAP diet to see if I can improve my health any further. Have you tried anything to improve your health, or did you just accept the IBS diagnosis? I only ask because I've seen no re…

I've tried eliminating wheat, sugar (in case it was fructose malabsorption), dairy, etc. I've tried tons of supplements like fish oil or vitamin D. Interestingly, each of those except dairy had very positive effects on my health in general (weight loss, clearer skin, elimination of seasonal depression) but had little effect on IBS symptoms. What did improve it (but not eliminate it) was taking an SSRI, which isn't su…

Have you considered doing a fecal transplant?

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#77

Post by joshu »

jessicarichman wrote: post #64

Hi there, I'm CEO of uBiome. It's a really fascinating area and there are a lot of interesting discoveries coming out. If you'd like to learn more about your microbiome, check us out at www.ubiome.com.

Similarly, hypothesis like these were why I invested in uBiome.

Re: Intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

#80

Post by vidarh »

ggchappell wrote: post #57
bmm6o wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "syndrome" is a classification of related signs and symptoms without relating them to a single underlying cause, so yeah, that's what it means. As more is learned about the causes, different disorders can be removed from the syndrome.

True. But note that "can be" does not mean "will be". For example, AIDS is a syndrome (thus the "S") whose causes have been pretty well understood for some time. However, it is still defined as a syndrome.

As far as I understand it, AIDS is a syndrome rather than a disease because while the cause of the immune system deficiency has a single cause, many of the symptoms are caused by secondary problems that arise because of the immune system deficiency, and so the symptoms do not have a single direct cause, even though they're all indirectly the result of HIV, and the immune deficiency itself is a direct result of HIV
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