Moody microbes 🧠can they affect your mental health?
Depression can be transferred from humans to rats through a fecal microbiota transplant
When we talk about food and mood, we often look to studies of depression.
Depression can be different from person to person, but certain features in some cases of depression seem to be influenced by your gut bacteria, and the food you eat.
Like any condition, disorder, or disease, having a potential new avenue for treatment to complement standard care can only be a good thing; the more tools we have, the better.
Could targeting your gut bacteria be a new avenue to feeling well both physically and mentally?
The gut microbiome is different in depression
Several studies have shown how the gut microbiome is different in depression than it is in people without depression.
Certain bacteria too, are correlated to symptom severity.
There also seem to be fewer types of gut bacteria that produce helpful short-chain fatty acids - metabolites that support your immune system, metabolism, gut health, and more.
But are these changes simply side-effects of the condition itself, or are your gut bacteria playing an active role?
Transferring the blues
When we are looking to understand if x causes y, we need to consider how a study is designed.
Certain studies, e.g. large population-based studies, can only tell us patterns in a group of people.
Other studies, like human randomized control trials, and studies on animals, can tell us if it’s a cause-and-effect.
It’s important to remember that results from animal studies need to be confirmed in humans - even though we have biological similarities, findings don’t always translate across species.
Fecal microbiota transplants (FMT), are when a person’s microbiome (often as a freshly deposited poo) is transplanted into someone else’s gut.
In this case, the microbiome of people with depression was transplanted into rats - transferring their depressive symptoms, highlighting a potential causal role of the gut microbiome in mood - and a potential new target for treatment.
Can what you eat improve depression?
What you eat has one of the biggest influences on your gut microbiome.
While the researchers didn’t look at the gut microbiome at the time, a randomised control trial in 2017 was the first study to treat depression through food.
The researchers showed that of those who changed their diet towards a Mediterranean dietary pattern, 30% achieved full remission of their depressive symptoms after 12 weeks.
The more they improved their diet, the better their symptoms.
Since then, other randomised control trials have also shown similar results.
Final thoughts
It’s important to recognise that depression can look very different from one person to another - and an individualised approach is key.
It is exciting though, that for some people changing what they eat (and potentially their gut microbiome) can help ease some of their depressive symptoms, in combination with therapy and medication.
Chat soon, Emily xx