Re: If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

[Guest guest]

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an important role in your digestion. My gut has not been right since I quit ct.

From: Jim <mofunnow@...>Sent: Tue, April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AMSubject: If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Whyhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted By Dr. Mercola | April 12 2011 | 82,617 views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice, who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice, however, entered the open arms far more often, spending significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied by alterations in the expression levels of several genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize the gut in the days following birth, during a sensitive period of brain development, and apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

Neurogastroenterology & Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and actually has the ability to significantly influence your:

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that psychological problems such as depression are caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, researchers keep finding that depression and a variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria were found to behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) may play a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like serotonin can also be found in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can have a profound impact on your mood, psychological health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional intestinal microbiota influences the development of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent animal study, which also found that gut bacteria may influence mammalian early brain development and behavior. But that's not all. They also discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical period early in life when gut microorganisms affect the brain and change the behavior in later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. (For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this connection, read through Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the evidence for signs that psychiatric problems might be caused by lack of natural microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations, and one reason for this could be the lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You can still find traditionally fermented foods like natto or kefir, but they're not the dietary staples they once used to be, and many people don't like them when trying them out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria, her immune system—which is her primary defense system against inflammation—actually gets weaker, not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes, but also of depression.

The authors explain it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a variety of microorganisms (frequently referred to as the "old friends") were tasked by coevolutionary processes with training the human immune system to tolerate a wide array of non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory stimuli. Lacking such immune training, vulnerable individuals in the modern world are at significantly increased risk of mounting inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless environmental antigens (leading to asthma), benign food contents and commensals in the gut (leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (leading to any of a host of autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may promote major depression by increasing background levels of depressogenic cytokines and may predispose vulnerable individuals in industrialized societies to mount inappropriately aggressive inflammatory responses to psychosocial stressors, again leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or their antigens may offer promise for the prevention and treatment of major depression in modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend to improve when given probiotics, either in the form of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria -- more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15 percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather, they are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a moment, it's important to realize that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut, which is why you need to regularly reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is your second brain AND the seat of your immune system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health can impact your brain function, psyche, and behavior, as they are interconnected and interdependent in a number of different ways—several of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented milk such as kefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy).If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that, again, have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are definitely an exception. I have used many different brands over the past 15 years and there are many good ones out there. I also spent a long time researching and developing my own, called Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated everything I have learned about this important tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a high quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended.

[Guest guest]

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an important role in your digestion. My gut has not been right since I quit ct.

From: Jim <mofunnow@...>Sent: Tue, April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AMSubject: If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Whyhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted By Dr. Mercola | April 12 2011 | 82,617 views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice, who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice, however, entered the open arms far more often, spending significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied by alterations in the expression levels of several genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize the gut in the days following birth, during a sensitive period of brain development, and apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

Neurogastroenterology & Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and actually has the ability to significantly influence your:

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that psychological problems such as depression are caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, researchers keep finding that depression and a variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria were found to behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) may play a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like serotonin can also be found in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can have a profound impact on your mood, psychological health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional intestinal microbiota influences the development of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent animal study, which also found that gut bacteria may influence mammalian early brain development and behavior. But that's not all. They also discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical period early in life when gut microorganisms affect the brain and change the behavior in later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. (For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this connection, read through Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the evidence for signs that psychiatric problems might be caused by lack of natural microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations, and one reason for this could be the lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You can still find traditionally fermented foods like natto or kefir, but they're not the dietary staples they once used to be, and many people don't like them when trying them out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria, her immune system—which is her primary defense system against inflammation—actually gets weaker, not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes, but also of depression.

The authors explain it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a variety of microorganisms (frequently referred to as the "old friends") were tasked by coevolutionary processes with training the human immune system to tolerate a wide array of non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory stimuli. Lacking such immune training, vulnerable individuals in the modern world are at significantly increased risk of mounting inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless environmental antigens (leading to asthma), benign food contents and commensals in the gut (leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (leading to any of a host of autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may promote major depression by increasing background levels of depressogenic cytokines and may predispose vulnerable individuals in industrialized societies to mount inappropriately aggressive inflammatory responses to psychosocial stressors, again leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or their antigens may offer promise for the prevention and treatment of major depression in modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend to improve when given probiotics, either in the form of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria -- more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15 percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather, they are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a moment, it's important to realize that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut, which is why you need to regularly reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is your second brain AND the seat of your immune system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health can impact your brain function, psyche, and behavior, as they are interconnected and interdependent in a number of different ways—several of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented milk such as kefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy).If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that, again, have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are definitely an exception. I have used many different brands over the past 15 years and there are many good ones out there. I also spent a long time researching and developing my own, called Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated everything I have learned about this important tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a high quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended.

[Guest guest]

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an important role in your digestion. My gut has not been right since I quit ct.

From: Jim <mofunnow@...>Sent: Tue, April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AMSubject: If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Whyhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted By Dr. Mercola | April 12 2011 | 82,617 views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice, who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice, however, entered the open arms far more often, spending significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied by alterations in the expression levels of several genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize the gut in the days following birth, during a sensitive period of brain development, and apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

Neurogastroenterology & Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and actually has the ability to significantly influence your:

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that psychological problems such as depression are caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, researchers keep finding that depression and a variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria were found to behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) may play a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like serotonin can also be found in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can have a profound impact on your mood, psychological health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional intestinal microbiota influences the development of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent animal study, which also found that gut bacteria may influence mammalian early brain development and behavior. But that's not all. They also discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical period early in life when gut microorganisms affect the brain and change the behavior in later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. (For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this connection, read through Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the evidence for signs that psychiatric problems might be caused by lack of natural microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations, and one reason for this could be the lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You can still find traditionally fermented foods like natto or kefir, but they're not the dietary staples they once used to be, and many people don't like them when trying them out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria, her immune system—which is her primary defense system against inflammation—actually gets weaker, not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes, but also of depression.

The authors explain it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a variety of microorganisms (frequently referred to as the "old friends") were tasked by coevolutionary processes with training the human immune system to tolerate a wide array of non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory stimuli. Lacking such immune training, vulnerable individuals in the modern world are at significantly increased risk of mounting inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless environmental antigens (leading to asthma), benign food contents and commensals in the gut (leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (leading to any of a host of autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may promote major depression by increasing background levels of depressogenic cytokines and may predispose vulnerable individuals in industrialized societies to mount inappropriately aggressive inflammatory responses to psychosocial stressors, again leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or their antigens may offer promise for the prevention and treatment of major depression in modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend to improve when given probiotics, either in the form of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria -- more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15 percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather, they are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a moment, it's important to realize that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut, which is why you need to regularly reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is your second brain AND the seat of your immune system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health can impact your brain function, psyche, and behavior, as they are interconnected and interdependent in a number of different ways—several of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented milk such as kefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy).If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that, again, have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are definitely an exception. I have used many different brands over the past 15 years and there are many good ones out there. I also spent a long time researching and developing my own, called Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated everything I have learned about this important tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a high quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended.

[Guest guest]

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an important role in your digestion. My gut has not been right since I quit ct.

From: Jim <mofunnow@...>Sent: Tue, April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AMSubject: If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Whyhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted By Dr. Mercola | April 12 2011 | 82,617 views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice, who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice, however, entered the open arms far more often, spending significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied by alterations in the expression levels of several genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize the gut in the days following birth, during a sensitive period of brain development, and apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

Neurogastroenterology & Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and actually has the ability to significantly influence your:

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that psychological problems such as depression are caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, researchers keep finding that depression and a variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria were found to behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) may play a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like serotonin can also be found in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can have a profound impact on your mood, psychological health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional intestinal microbiota influences the development of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent animal study, which also found that gut bacteria may influence mammalian early brain development and behavior. But that's not all. They also discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical period early in life when gut microorganisms affect the brain and change the behavior in later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together, and explains such phenomena as getting butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for example. (For an interesting and well-written layman's explanation of this connection, read through Blakeslee's 1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore, it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed the evidence for signs that psychiatric problems might be caused by lack of natural microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations, and one reason for this could be the lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You can still find traditionally fermented foods like natto or kefir, but they're not the dietary staples they once used to be, and many people don't like them when trying them out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria, her immune system—which is her primary defense system against inflammation—actually gets weaker, not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes, but also of depression.

The authors explain it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a variety of microorganisms (frequently referred to as the "old friends") were tasked by coevolutionary processes with training the human immune system to tolerate a wide array of non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory stimuli. Lacking such immune training, vulnerable individuals in the modern world are at significantly increased risk of mounting inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless environmental antigens (leading to asthma), benign food contents and commensals in the gut (leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (leading to any of a host of autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may promote major depression by increasing background levels of depressogenic cytokines and may predispose vulnerable individuals in industrialized societies to mount inappropriately aggressive inflammatory responses to psychosocial stressors, again leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or their antigens may offer promise for the prevention and treatment of major depression in modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which is autism. In this particular area you can again find compelling evidence of the link between brain and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend to improve when given probiotics, either in the form of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have investigated the connection between developmental disorders and bowel disease. He has published about 130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease, and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel connection in the context of children with developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also been performed around the world, by other researchers, confirming the curious link between brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria -- more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15 percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather, they are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a moment, it's important to realize that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut, which is why you need to regularly reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is your second brain AND the seat of your immune system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health can impact your brain function, psyche, and behavior, as they are interconnected and interdependent in a number of different ways—several of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented milk such as kefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy).If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that, again, have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are definitely an exception. I have used many different brands over the past 15 years and there are many good ones out there. I also spent a long time researching and developing my own, called Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated everything I have learned about this important tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a high quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended.

[Guest guest]

It is amazing to me how everything is so

interconnected...

This article, Dr. Hymen's article and Dr. Wakefield all

refer to the repair and working of the gut as a solution to mental

and emotional issues.

Get you some high quality enzymes, eat more raw veggies, and find

some high quality probiotics and see if that helps. I went from

thinking constipated was normal to now having a very healthy gut.

My energy has increased as well as my outlook.

On 4/12/2011 1:00 PM, Antony Sandler wrote:

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an

important role in your digestion.   My gut has not been right

since I quit ct.

From: Jim

<mofunnow@...>

Sent: Tue,

April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AM

Subject:

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could

be Why

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted

By Dr. Mercola |

April 12 2011 | 82,617

views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice,

who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test

anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a

plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice

will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being

seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the

closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice,

however, entered the open arms far more often, spending

significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology &

Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they

found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied

by alterations in the expression levels of several

genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize

the gut in the days following birth, during a

sensitive period of brain development, and

apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in

the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

 

Neurogastroenterology

& Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite

literally your second brain, and actually has the

ability to significantly influence your: 

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that

psychological problems such as depression are

caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain,

researchers keep finding that depression and a

variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be

linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology

& Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria

were found to behave differently from normal mice,

engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk

behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by

neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut

flora) may play a role in the communication

between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the

immediate postnatal period has a defining impact

on the development and function of the

gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and

metabolic systems. For example, the presence of

gut microbiota regulates

the set point for

hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates

your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by

stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your

brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like

serotonin can also be found in your gut.

In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin,

which is involved in mood control, depression and

aggression, is found in your intestines, not your

brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your

gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can

have a profound impact on your mood, psychological

health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional

intestinal microbiota influences the development

of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent

animal study, which also found that gut

bacteria may influence mammalian early brain

development and behavior. But that's not all. They

also discovered that the absence or presence of gut

microorganisms during infancy permanently

alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern

that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and

signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and

motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is

closely tied to early brain development and

subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could

be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to

normal microorganisms early in life. But once the

germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing

them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author

of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical

period early in life when gut microorganisms

affect the brain and change the behavior in

later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found

to influence the

activity of hundreds of your genes, helping

them to express in a positive, disease-fighting

manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain

connection is recognized as a basic tenet of

physiology and medicine, and that there's no

shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement

in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to

see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a

significant role in your psychology and behavior as

well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear

that nourishing your gut flora is extremely

important, from cradle to grave, because in a very

real sense you have two brains, one inside

your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its

own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually

created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal

development, one part turns into your central

nervous system while the other develops into your

enteric nervous system. These two systems are

connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial

nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your

abdomen. This is what connects your two brains

together, and explains such phenomena as getting

butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for

example. (For an interesting and well-written

layman's explanation of this connection, read

through Blakeslee's

1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden

Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing

the other. This is why your intestinal health can

have such a profound influence on your mental

health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is

closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore,

it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination

to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse

effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year

in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed

the evidence for signs that psychiatric

problems might be caused by lack of natural

microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And

it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily

grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older

populations, and one reason for this could be the

lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and

inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too

sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in

most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with

its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of

food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You

can still find traditionally

fermented foods like natto or kefir, but

they're not the dietary staples they once used to

be, and many people don't like them when trying them

out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria,

her immune system—which is her primary defense

system against inflammation—actually gets weaker,

not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are

not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes,

but also of depression.

The authors explain

it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a

variety of microorganisms (frequently referred

to as the "old friends") were tasked by

coevolutionary processes with training the human

immune system to tolerate a wide array of

non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory

stimuli. Lacking such immune training,

vulnerable individuals in the modern world are

at significantly increased risk of mounting

inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless

environmental antigens (leading to asthma),

benign food contents and commensals in the gut

(leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or

self-antigens (leading to any of a host of

autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may

promote major depression by increasing

background levels of depressogenic cytokines and

may predispose vulnerable individuals in

industrialized societies to mount

inappropriately aggressive inflammatory

responses to psychosocial stressors, again

leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or

their antigens may offer promise for the

prevention and treatment of major depression in

modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut

Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which

is autism. In this particular area you can again

find compelling evidence of the link between brain

and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is

frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic

children will improve when following a strict

gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend

to improve when given probiotics, either in the form

of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have

investigated the connection between developmental

disorders and bowel disease. He has published about

130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the

mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease,

and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel

connection in the context of children with

developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also

been performed around the world, by other

researchers, confirming the curious link between

brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal

dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of

those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria --

more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in

your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the

bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15

percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications

discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut

bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other

microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and

eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in

your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar

cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or

diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather,

they are an active and integrated part of your body,

and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you

eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut

bacteria are going to be compromised because

processed foods in general will destroy healthy

microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually

all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's

generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria

in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic

supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a

moment, it's important to realize that an estimated

80 percent of your immune system is actually located

in your gut, which is why you need to regularly

reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is

your second brain AND the seat of your immune

system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health

can impact your brain function, psyche, and

behavior, as they are interconnected and

interdependent in a number of different ways—several

of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for

optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the

best route to optimal digestive health, as long as

you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized

versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian

yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before

dinner), fermented milk such as kefir,

various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips,

eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots,

and natto

(fermented soy).

If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these

that, again, have not been pasteurized

(pasteurization kills the naturally occurring

probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will

thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although

I'm not a major proponent of taking many

supplements (as I believe the majority of your

nutrients need to come from food), probiotics

are definitely an exception. I have used many

different brands over the past 15 years and there

are many good ones out there. I also spent a long

time researching and developing my own, called

Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated

everything I have learned about this important

tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a

high quality probiotic supplement is definitely

recommended.

[Guest guest]

It is amazing to me how everything is so

interconnected...

This article, Dr. Hymen's article and Dr. Wakefield all

refer to the repair and working of the gut as a solution to mental

and emotional issues.

Get you some high quality enzymes, eat more raw veggies, and find

some high quality probiotics and see if that helps. I went from

thinking constipated was normal to now having a very healthy gut.

My energy has increased as well as my outlook.

On 4/12/2011 1:00 PM, Antony Sandler wrote:

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an

important role in your digestion.   My gut has not been right

since I quit ct.

From: Jim

<mofunnow@...>

Sent: Tue,

April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AM

Subject:

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could

be Why

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted

By Dr. Mercola |

April 12 2011 | 82,617

views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice,

who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test

anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a

plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice

will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being

seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the

closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice,

however, entered the open arms far more often, spending

significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology &

Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they

found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied

by alterations in the expression levels of several

genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize

the gut in the days following birth, during a

sensitive period of brain development, and

apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in

the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

 

Neurogastroenterology

& Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite

literally your second brain, and actually has the

ability to significantly influence your: 

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that

psychological problems such as depression are

caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain,

researchers keep finding that depression and a

variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be

linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology

& Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria

were found to behave differently from normal mice,

engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk

behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by

neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut

flora) may play a role in the communication

between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the

immediate postnatal period has a defining impact

on the development and function of the

gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and

metabolic systems. For example, the presence of

gut microbiota regulates

the set point for

hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates

your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by

stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your

brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like

serotonin can also be found in your gut.

In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin,

which is involved in mood control, depression and

aggression, is found in your intestines, not your

brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your

gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can

have a profound impact on your mood, psychological

health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional

intestinal microbiota influences the development

of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent

animal study, which also found that gut

bacteria may influence mammalian early brain

development and behavior. But that's not all. They

also discovered that the absence or presence of gut

microorganisms during infancy permanently

alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern

that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and

signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and

motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is

closely tied to early brain development and

subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could

be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to

normal microorganisms early in life. But once the

germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing

them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author

of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical

period early in life when gut microorganisms

affect the brain and change the behavior in

later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found

to influence the

activity of hundreds of your genes, helping

them to express in a positive, disease-fighting

manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain

connection is recognized as a basic tenet of

physiology and medicine, and that there's no

shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement

in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to

see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a

significant role in your psychology and behavior as

well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear

that nourishing your gut flora is extremely

important, from cradle to grave, because in a very

real sense you have two brains, one inside

your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its

own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually

created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal

development, one part turns into your central

nervous system while the other develops into your

enteric nervous system. These two systems are

connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial

nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your

abdomen. This is what connects your two brains

together, and explains such phenomena as getting

butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for

example. (For an interesting and well-written

layman's explanation of this connection, read

through Blakeslee's

1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden

Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing

the other. This is why your intestinal health can

have such a profound influence on your mental

health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is

closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore,

it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination

to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse

effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year

in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed

the evidence for signs that psychiatric

problems might be caused by lack of natural

microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And

it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily

grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older

populations, and one reason for this could be the

lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and

inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too

sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in

most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with

its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of

food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You

can still find traditionally

fermented foods like natto or kefir, but

they're not the dietary staples they once used to

be, and many people don't like them when trying them

out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria,

her immune system—which is her primary defense

system against inflammation—actually gets weaker,

not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are

not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes,

but also of depression.

The authors explain

it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a

variety of microorganisms (frequently referred

to as the "old friends") were tasked by

coevolutionary processes with training the human

immune system to tolerate a wide array of

non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory

stimuli. Lacking such immune training,

vulnerable individuals in the modern world are

at significantly increased risk of mounting

inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless

environmental antigens (leading to asthma),

benign food contents and commensals in the gut

(leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or

self-antigens (leading to any of a host of

autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may

promote major depression by increasing

background levels of depressogenic cytokines and

may predispose vulnerable individuals in

industrialized societies to mount

inappropriately aggressive inflammatory

responses to psychosocial stressors, again

leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or

their antigens may offer promise for the

prevention and treatment of major depression in

modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut

Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which

is autism. In this particular area you can again

find compelling evidence of the link between brain

and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is

frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic

children will improve when following a strict

gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend

to improve when given probiotics, either in the form

of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have

investigated the connection between developmental

disorders and bowel disease. He has published about

130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the

mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease,

and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel

connection in the context of children with

developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also

been performed around the world, by other

researchers, confirming the curious link between

brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal

dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of

those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria --

more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in

your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the

bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15

percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications

discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut

bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other

microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and

eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in

your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar

cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or

diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather,

they are an active and integrated part of your body,

and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you

eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut

bacteria are going to be compromised because

processed foods in general will destroy healthy

microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually

all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's

generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria

in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic

supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a

moment, it's important to realize that an estimated

80 percent of your immune system is actually located

in your gut, which is why you need to regularly

reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is

your second brain AND the seat of your immune

system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health

can impact your brain function, psyche, and

behavior, as they are interconnected and

interdependent in a number of different ways—several

of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for

optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the

best route to optimal digestive health, as long as

you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized

versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian

yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before

dinner), fermented milk such as kefir,

various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips,

eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots,

and natto

(fermented soy).

If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these

that, again, have not been pasteurized

(pasteurization kills the naturally occurring

probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will

thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although

I'm not a major proponent of taking many

supplements (as I believe the majority of your

nutrients need to come from food), probiotics

are definitely an exception. I have used many

different brands over the past 15 years and there

are many good ones out there. I also spent a long

time researching and developing my own, called

Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated

everything I have learned about this important

tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a

high quality probiotic supplement is definitely

recommended.

[Guest guest]

It is amazing to me how everything is so

interconnected...

This article, Dr. Hymen's article and Dr. Wakefield all

refer to the repair and working of the gut as a solution to mental

and emotional issues.

Get you some high quality enzymes, eat more raw veggies, and find

some high quality probiotics and see if that helps. I went from

thinking constipated was normal to now having a very healthy gut.

My energy has increased as well as my outlook.

On 4/12/2011 1:00 PM, Antony Sandler wrote:

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an

important role in your digestion.   My gut has not been right

since I quit ct.

From: Jim

<mofunnow@...>

Sent: Tue,

April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AM

Subject:

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could

be Why

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted

By Dr. Mercola |

April 12 2011 | 82,617

views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice,

who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test

anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a

plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice

will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being

seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the

closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice,

however, entered the open arms far more often, spending

significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology &

Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they

found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied

by alterations in the expression levels of several

genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize

the gut in the days following birth, during a

sensitive period of brain development, and

apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in

the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

 

Neurogastroenterology

& Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite

literally your second brain, and actually has the

ability to significantly influence your: 

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that

psychological problems such as depression are

caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain,

researchers keep finding that depression and a

variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be

linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology

& Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria

were found to behave differently from normal mice,

engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk

behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by

neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut

flora) may play a role in the communication

between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the

immediate postnatal period has a defining impact

on the development and function of the

gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and

metabolic systems. For example, the presence of

gut microbiota regulates

the set point for

hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates

your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by

stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your

brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like

serotonin can also be found in your gut.

In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin,

which is involved in mood control, depression and

aggression, is found in your intestines, not your

brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your

gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can

have a profound impact on your mood, psychological

health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional

intestinal microbiota influences the development

of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent

animal study, which also found that gut

bacteria may influence mammalian early brain

development and behavior. But that's not all. They

also discovered that the absence or presence of gut

microorganisms during infancy permanently

alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern

that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and

signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and

motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is

closely tied to early brain development and

subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could

be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to

normal microorganisms early in life. But once the

germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing

them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author

of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical

period early in life when gut microorganisms

affect the brain and change the behavior in

later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found

to influence the

activity of hundreds of your genes, helping

them to express in a positive, disease-fighting

manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain

connection is recognized as a basic tenet of

physiology and medicine, and that there's no

shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement

in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to

see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a

significant role in your psychology and behavior as

well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear

that nourishing your gut flora is extremely

important, from cradle to grave, because in a very

real sense you have two brains, one inside

your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its

own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually

created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal

development, one part turns into your central

nervous system while the other develops into your

enteric nervous system. These two systems are

connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial

nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your

abdomen. This is what connects your two brains

together, and explains such phenomena as getting

butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for

example. (For an interesting and well-written

layman's explanation of this connection, read

through Blakeslee's

1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden

Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing

the other. This is why your intestinal health can

have such a profound influence on your mental

health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is

closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore,

it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination

to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse

effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year

in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed

the evidence for signs that psychiatric

problems might be caused by lack of natural

microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And

it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily

grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older

populations, and one reason for this could be the

lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and

inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too

sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in

most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with

its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of

food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You

can still find traditionally

fermented foods like natto or kefir, but

they're not the dietary staples they once used to

be, and many people don't like them when trying them

out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria,

her immune system—which is her primary defense

system against inflammation—actually gets weaker,

not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are

not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes,

but also of depression.

The authors explain

it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a

variety of microorganisms (frequently referred

to as the "old friends") were tasked by

coevolutionary processes with training the human

immune system to tolerate a wide array of

non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory

stimuli. Lacking such immune training,

vulnerable individuals in the modern world are

at significantly increased risk of mounting

inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless

environmental antigens (leading to asthma),

benign food contents and commensals in the gut

(leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or

self-antigens (leading to any of a host of

autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may

promote major depression by increasing

background levels of depressogenic cytokines and

may predispose vulnerable individuals in

industrialized societies to mount

inappropriately aggressive inflammatory

responses to psychosocial stressors, again

leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or

their antigens may offer promise for the

prevention and treatment of major depression in

modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut

Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which

is autism. In this particular area you can again

find compelling evidence of the link between brain

and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is

frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic

children will improve when following a strict

gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend

to improve when given probiotics, either in the form

of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have

investigated the connection between developmental

disorders and bowel disease. He has published about

130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the

mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease,

and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel

connection in the context of children with

developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also

been performed around the world, by other

researchers, confirming the curious link between

brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal

dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of

those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria --

more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in

your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the

bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15

percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications

discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut

bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other

microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and

eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in

your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar

cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or

diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather,

they are an active and integrated part of your body,

and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you

eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut

bacteria are going to be compromised because

processed foods in general will destroy healthy

microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually

all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's

generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria

in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic

supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a

moment, it's important to realize that an estimated

80 percent of your immune system is actually located

in your gut, which is why you need to regularly

reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is

your second brain AND the seat of your immune

system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health

can impact your brain function, psyche, and

behavior, as they are interconnected and

interdependent in a number of different ways—several

of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for

optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the

best route to optimal digestive health, as long as

you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized

versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian

yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before

dinner), fermented milk such as kefir,

various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips,

eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots,

and natto

(fermented soy).

If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these

that, again, have not been pasteurized

(pasteurization kills the naturally occurring

probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will

thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although

I'm not a major proponent of taking many

supplements (as I believe the majority of your

nutrients need to come from food), probiotics

are definitely an exception. I have used many

different brands over the past 15 years and there

are many good ones out there. I also spent a long

time researching and developing my own, called

Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated

everything I have learned about this important

tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a

high quality probiotic supplement is definitely

recommended.

[Guest guest]

It is amazing to me how everything is so

interconnected...

This article, Dr. Hymen's article and Dr. Wakefield all

refer to the repair and working of the gut as a solution to mental

and emotional issues.

Get you some high quality enzymes, eat more raw veggies, and find

some high quality probiotics and see if that helps. I went from

thinking constipated was normal to now having a very healthy gut.

My energy has increased as well as my outlook.

On 4/12/2011 1:00 PM, Antony Sandler wrote:

And a really funny thing about this is, seratonin plays an

important role in your digestion.   My gut has not been right

since I quit ct.

From: Jim

<mofunnow@...>

Sent: Tue,

April 12, 2011 11:19:05 AM

Subject:

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could

be Why

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/12/beware--bacteria-growing-in-your-gut-can-influence-your-behavior.aspx

If You Can't Beat Depression, This Could be Why

Posted

By Dr. Mercola |

April 12 2011 | 82,617

views

Researchers examined the performance of germ-free mice,

who lack gut bacteria, on a kind of maze used to test

anxiety-like behaviors. The maze is in the shape of a

plus with two open and two closed arms; normally, mice

will avoid open spaces to minimize the risk of being

seen by predators.

Normal mice, as expected, spent far more time in the

closed arms when placed in the maze. The germ-free mice,

however, entered the open arms far more often, spending

significantly more time there than in the closed arms.

According to the study in Neurogastroenterology &

Motility, when they examined the animals' brains, they

found that:

"these differences in behavior were accompanied

by alterations in the expression levels of several

genes in the germ-free mice. ... Bacteria colonize

the gut in the days following birth, during a

sensitive period of brain development, and

apparently influence behavior by inducing changes in

the expression of certain genes."

Sources:

 

Neurogastroenterology

& Motility March 2011; 23(3); 255–e119

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite

literally your second brain, and actually has the

ability to significantly influence your: 

Mind

Mood

Behavior

So while modern psychiatry still falsely claims that

psychological problems such as depression are

caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain,

researchers keep finding that depression and a

variety of behavioral problems actually appear to be

linked to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut!

Germ-Free Mice Engage in High-Risk Behavior

In the featured study published last month in Neurogastroenterology

& Motility, mice that lack gut bacteria

were found to behave differently from normal mice,

engaging in what would be referred to as "high-risk

behavior." This altered behavior was accompanied by

neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.

According to the authors, microbiota (your gut

flora) may play a role in the communication

between your gut and your brain, and:

"Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the

immediate postnatal period has a defining impact

on the development and function of the

gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and

metabolic systems. For example, the presence of

gut microbiota regulates

the set point for

hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

activity."

The neurotransmitter serotonin activates

your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by

stimulating certain serotonin receptors in your

brain. Additionally, neurotransmitters like

serotonin can also be found in your gut.

In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin,

which is involved in mood control, depression and

aggression, is found in your intestines, not your

brain!

So it actually makes perfect sense to nourish your

gut flora for optimal serotonin function as it can

have a profound impact on your mood, psychological

health, and behavior.

The authors concluded that:

"[T]he presence or absence of conventional

intestinal microbiota influences the development

of behavior..."

This conclusion adds support to another recent

animal study, which also found that gut

bacteria may influence mammalian early brain

development and behavior. But that's not all. They

also discovered that the absence or presence of gut

microorganisms during infancy permanently

alters gene expression.

Through gene profiling, they were able to discern

that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and

signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and

motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria is

closely tied to early brain development and

subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could

be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to

normal microorganisms early in life. But once the

germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing

them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

According to Dr. Rochellys Heijtz, lead author

of the study:

"The data suggests that there is a critical

period early in life when gut microorganisms

affect the brain and change the behavior in

later life."

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found

to influence the

activity of hundreds of your genes, helping

them to express in a positive, disease-fighting

manner.

The Gut-Brain Connection

When you consider the fact that the gut-brain

connection is recognized as a basic tenet of

physiology and medicine, and that there's no

shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement

in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to

see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a

significant role in your psychology and behavior as

well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear

that nourishing your gut flora is extremely

important, from cradle to grave, because in a very

real sense you have two brains, one inside

your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its

own vital nourishment.

Interestingly, these two organs are actually

created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal

development, one part turns into your central

nervous system while the other develops into your

enteric nervous system. These two systems are

connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial

nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your

abdomen. This is what connects your two brains

together, and explains such phenomena as getting

butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, for

example. (For an interesting and well-written

layman's explanation of this connection, read

through Blakeslee's

1996 New York Times article Complex and Hidden

Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies.)

Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing

the other. This is why your intestinal health can

have such a profound influence on your mental

health, and vice versa.

As a result, it should be obvious that your diet is

closely linked to your mental health. Furthermore,

it's requires almost no stretch of the imagination

to see how lack of nutrition can have an adverse

effect on your mood and subsequently your behavior.

Have We Become Too Sanitized for Our Own Sanity?

Another study published last year

in the Archives of General Psychiatry reviewed

the evidence for signs that psychiatric

problems might be caused by lack of natural

microorganisms in soil, food, and the gut. And

it did find such a link.

Rates of depression in younger people have steadily

grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older

populations, and one reason for this could be the

lack of exposure to bacteria, both outside and

inside your body.

Quite simply, modern society may have gotten too

sanitized and pasteurized for our own good.

Fermented foods have been traditional staples in

most cultures, but modern food manufacturing, with

its focus on killing ALL bacteria in the name of

food safety, has eliminated most of these foods. You

can still find traditionally

fermented foods like natto or kefir, but

they're not the dietary staples they once used to

be, and many people don't like them when trying them

out for the first time in adulthood.

When you deprive your child of all this bacteria,

her immune system—which is her primary defense

system against inflammation—actually gets weaker,

not stronger. And higher levels of inflammation are

not only a hallmark of heart disease and diabetes,

but also of depression.

The authors explain

it as follows:

"Significant data suggest that a

variety of microorganisms (frequently referred

to as the "old friends") were tasked by

coevolutionary processes with training the human

immune system to tolerate a wide array of

non-threatening but potentially proinflammatory

stimuli. Lacking such immune training,

vulnerable individuals in the modern world are

at significantly increased risk of mounting

inappropriate inflammatory attacks on harmless

environmental antigens (leading to asthma),

benign food contents and commensals in the gut

(leading to inflammatory bowel disease), or

self-antigens (leading to any of a host of

autoimmune diseases).

Loss of exposure to the old friends may

promote major depression by increasing

background levels of depressogenic cytokines and

may predispose vulnerable individuals in

industrialized societies to mount

inappropriately aggressive inflammatory

responses to psychosocial stressors, again

leading to increased rates of depression.

… Measured exposure to the old friends or

their antigens may offer promise for the

prevention and treatment of major depression in

modern industrialized societies."

Researchers around the World have Linked Gut

Problems to Brain Disorders

Brain disorders can take many forms, one of which

is autism. In this particular area you can again

find compelling evidence of the link between brain

and gut health. For example, gluten intolerance is

frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic

children will improve when following a strict

gluten-free diet. Many autistic children also tend

to improve when given probiotics, either in the form

of fermented foods or probiotic supplements.

Dr. Wakefield is just one of many who have

investigated the connection between developmental

disorders and bowel disease. He has published about

130-140 peer-reviewed papers looking at the

mechanism and cause of inflammatory bowel disease,

and has extensively investigated the brain-bowel

connection in the context of children with

developmental disorders such as autism.

A large number of replication studies have also

been performed around the world, by other

researchers, confirming the curious link between

brain disorders such as autism and gastrointestinal

dysfunction. For a list of more than 25 of

those studies, please see this previous article.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Your body contains about 100 trillion bacteria --

more than 10 TIMES the number of cells you have in

your entire body. Ideally, the ratio between the

bacteria in your gut is 85 percent "good" and 15

percent "bad."

In addition to the psychological implications

discussed above, a healthy ratio of good to bad gut

bacteria is essential for:

Protection against over-growth of other

microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and

eliminating toxins

Preventing allergies

Signs of having an excess of unhealthy bacteria in

your gut include gas and bloating, fatigue, sugar

cravings, nausea, headaches, constipation or

diarrhea.

What Interferes With Healthy Gut Bacteria?

Your gut bacteria do not live in a bubble; rather,

they are an active and integrated part of your body,

and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you

eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut

bacteria are going to be compromised because

processed foods in general will destroy healthy

microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast.

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics

Chlorinated water

Antibacterial soap

Agricultural chemicals

Pollution

Because of these latter items, to which virtually

all of us are exposed at least occasionally, it's

generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria

in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic

supplement or eating fermented foods.

Tips for Optimizing Your Gut Bacteria

Getting back to the issue of inflammation for a

moment, it's important to realize that an estimated

80 percent of your immune system is actually located

in your gut, which is why you need to regularly

reseed your gut with good bacteria.

Additionally, when you consider that your gut is

your second brain AND the seat of your immune

system, it becomes easy to see how your gut health

can impact your brain function, psyche, and

behavior, as they are interconnected and

interdependent in a number of different ways—several

of which are discussed above.

In light of this, here are my recommendations for

optimizing your gut bacteria.

Fermented foods are still the

best route to optimal digestive health, as long as

you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized

versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian

yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before

dinner), fermented milk such as kefir,

various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips,

eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots,

and natto

(fermented soy).

If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these

that, again, have not been pasteurized

(pasteurization kills the naturally occurring

probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will

thrive.

Probiotic supplement. Although

I'm not a major proponent of taking many

supplements (as I believe the majority of your

nutrients need to come from food), probiotics

are definitely an exception. I have used many

different brands over the past 15 years and there

are many good ones out there. I also spent a long

time researching and developing my own, called

Complete Probiotics, in which I incorporated

everything I have learned about this important

tool over the years.

If you do not eat fermented foods, taking a

high quality probiotic supplement is definitely

recommended.