Your Gut Bacteria Can Actually Affect How You Feel
And how making a few simple changes could massively improve your mood
Feeling Down?
Ever wondered why you’re feeling low with seemingly no reasonable explanation? Experiencing sudden bouts of fatigue or general feelings of tiredness/lack of motivation? It turns out the explanation could be surprisingly simple – with the solution following suit in this respect.
Over the last few decades, evidence has been mounting within the scientific community. Evidence suggests that there is a strong correlation between gut bacteria and your mental health.
Jeroen Raes, a lead researcher in a Belgian university, recently conducted a study alongside his colleagues. This study revealed that certain strains of bacteria are missing in people with depression. Interestingly the verdict is still out on which is the cause, and which is the symptom. However strong speculation exists surrounding both sides of this argument.
What Do We Know For Sure?
We know for sure that imbalances in the digestive tract can lead to fatigue. As the digestive tract is responsible for the production of specific B-vitamins within the human body. As a result, poor digestive health can completely nullify the benefits of even the healthiest of diets.
When the bacteria in your gut is imbalanced, you may find that you aren’t absorbing the correct amount of nutrients. This can lead to a nutrient imbalance – these imbalances can manifest themselves in a wide variety of horrible ways. With fatigue actually being one of the less serious and less uncomfortable symptoms.
What Are Some Other Signs Of Poor Gut Health?
As it turns out, there’s a surprisingly large overlap between commonly associated symptoms of depression & poor gut health. For example, both have been linked to weight gain – albeit for different causes. People with depression may have rapidly changing diets which they understandably struggle to keep track of.
However, people with poor gut health can maintain the same diet for extended periods of time and experience large weight fluctuations. This is particularly stressful for people with poor body image issues or people who work in fields with weight requirements (Athletes for instance). There is a great variety in possible stress-enhancing side effects associated with poor gut biodiversity. For example:
Joint Pain & Inflammation
The University of Rochester recently published a study suggesting that joint pain and inflammation were affected by poor gut health. This study revealed that a poor diet would result in the production of inflammation-promoting bacteria in the gut. This study used mice as a reference point. Namely due to the ethical concerns of intentionally damaging the gut microbiome of human participants.
Difficulty Sleeping & Restlessness
This is another side effect of poor microbiome bacterial diversity. Lack of sleep can actually cause depression but is also a commonly associated symptom of depression. Making it difficult to distinguish the root cause of these sleep disturbances. What we know for certain is this: the majority of serotonin is produced in the gut. Serotonin is responsible for regulating both sleep and mood. This means that logically speaking damaging the environment that manufactures this hormone will have a knock on negative effect on both your sleeping schedule and your mood.
