Caring for our gut microbiome.

Our gut microbiome is becoming such an area of focus in mental health research now. Unfortunately, dramatic changes in our food system have negatively influenced the diverse and plentiful communities of bacteria in our gut and this impacts our mind. And it’s not just food that has detrimental effects. Stress and pathogens also compromise gut health- so it’s important to simplify life where we can and nourish our gut biome.

Everyone now will likely be taking or have taken a probiotic. Something I often get asked is what is the best type of probiotic on the market- it’s a complicated matter. We have a couple of different types of probiotics- the most common are lactic acid bacteria. You may have heard of the strains Bifidobacterium and lactobacillus. They are commonly found in fermented foods such as yoghurt. These are bacteria that produce lactic acid by eating lactose carbs and sugar. They eat these foods via fermentation which lowers the ph of the gut and so limit the growth of pathogens and yeast. Unfortunately these strains are not robust and sensitive to light and heat so die easily. The stomach as you can imagine is so acidic it’s going to kill most of these strains before they can reach the gut and recolonise.

Then we have soil based probiotics found in dirt. They generally have a hard shell called an endospore to survive tough conditions. Spore- based probiotics have a powerful impact on gut microbe diversity , because they can survive that stomach acid and then also survive in the external environment. They then find bad bacteria and kill them off while feeding the good bacteria prebiotics. Spore- based probiotics are generally found in the soil and that’s why we should be out playing in the dirt way more than we do now.

A recent study showed that when dietary endotoxemia is present — producing an inflammatory response in the body after a high fat/high calorie meal (which is common in Western countries), a spore- based probiotic is really very effective. The study involved 30 days of spore- based supplementation given to those who respond with elevated inflammatory markers after a high- fat meal; in this case a thin- crust cheese pizza. After 30 days of supplementation, diet- induced endotoxin and inflammation after the meal was significantly reduced.

A study in the Brain, Behavior and Immunity journal investigated whether changing the array of bacteria in the gut, through probiotic supplements had a positive effect on mood. The study provided the probiotic to twenty healthy individuals, none of whom had a mood disorder, over a four-week period. A similar group of twenty individuals received a placebo over the same period. At the conclusion of the study, both groups were tested to determine their reactivity, in terms of depression. It was concluded that there was a significant reduction in the degree change, in terms of cognitive reactivity to sad mood, in the group receiving the probiotic when compared to placebo. What really stood out as a highlight of this study is that the  is that the probiotic exerted the strongest effects for reducing rumination and aggressive thoughts.

Several other studies have reported that when people take probiotics their anxiety levels, perception of stress, and mental outlook improve, compared with those who don’t take a probiotic.

An important point; probiotics need food too, which is why prebiotics are vitally important as they enable the probiotics to carry out their work. Essentially they are the three course meal your healthy gut microbiome want to dine on.

The best way to get prebiotics is to drive up your intake of soluble fibre rich foods such as chicory root, dandelion greens, garlic, leeks, onions, sweet potatoes, and asparagus.

Along with prebiotic foods adding probiotics to your daily eating plan is important. Probiotics are designed to benefit the gut by adding good bacteria, which will leave less space for bad bacteria, thus enabling the whole community of the gut microbiome to produce beneficial compounds for the rest of the body to use.

Adding foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and kombucha into your diet will naturally improve microbe diversity. Taking a probiotic supplement is also beneficial but search for a spore based probiotic.

Click on the button below and learn about the importance of consuming bone broth for gut health.

M Pirbaglou, J Katz, R.J de Souza et al. (2016). ‘Probiotic supplementation can positively affect anxiety and depressive symptoms: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.’ Nutrition Rresearch 36(9) pp. 889–98;

A Bharwani, MF Mian, MG Surette et al. (2017). ‘Oral treatment with Lactobacillus rhamnosus attenuates behavioural deficits and immune changes in chronic social stress.’ BMC Mmedicine. Vol 15(1) pp .7

BK McFarlin, AL Henning, EM Bowman et al. (2017). ‘Oral spore-based probiotic supplementation was associated with reduced incidence of post-prandial dietary endotoxin, triglycerides, and disease risk biomarkers.’ World journal gastrointestinal pathophysiology. Vol 8(3) pp. 117–-126

L Steenbergen, R Sellaro, S van Hemert et al (2015). ‘A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of multispecies probiotics on cognitive reactivity to sad mood.’ Brain, behavior, and immunity. Vol 48 pp. 258–-264