UK:Gut bacteria may directly affect brain function: new ways to treat MS, ANXIETY and

[snagglepuss]

OTHER psychiatric conditions.


Gut bacteria regulate nerve fibre insulation

Far from being silent partners that merely help to digest food, the bacteria in your gut may also be exerting subtle influences on your thoughts, moods, and behaviour. And according to a new study from researchers at University College Cork, your gut microbes might affect the structure and function of the brain in a more direct way, by regulating myelination, the process by which nerve fibres are insulated so that they can conduct impulses properly.

The surprising new findings, published today in the journal Translational Psychiatry, provide what is perhaps the strongest evidence yet that gut bacteria can have a direct physical effect on the brain, and suggest that it may one day be possible to treat debilitating demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and even psychiatric disorders, by altering the composition of the gut’s microbial menagerie in some way or another.


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Using the same approach taken in their previous study, the researchers compared gene expression levels in the germ-free mice to that seen in normal animals. They identified approximately 90 genes that are differentially expressed in the germ-free animals and, to their surprise, they found that a handful of them are well known to be involved in myelination, and appear to be far more active in the prefrontal cortex of germ-free mice compared to that of normal animals. Some of the genes they identified encode proteins that form structural components of myelin, while others play a regulatory role in myelin formation.

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John Cryan and Gerard Clarke of the APC Microbiome Institute are particularly interested in how gut bacteria might influence the brain structures involved in anxiety-like behaviours. Last year, they published evidence that germ-free mice, which are completely devoid of gut bacteria, exhibit altered gene expression in the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped brain structure that is critical regulating emotions and social behaviour. The animals were reared in highly sterile conditions, so that bacteria cannot colonise their guts after birth – as a result certain genes involved in neuronal function appear to more active in their brains compared to those of normal mice.



https://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2016/apr/05/gut-bacteria-brain-myelin

[C Moon]

1. I'm just finding out what I've been dealing with my whole life, may be gut related.

It's a powerful thing, the gut.

[snagglepuss]

2. From what I read, the best source is Kefir which has 37 strains

of beneficial bacteria (aka probiotics) It looks like yogurt however yogurt only has two to five strains of bacteria.

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. You can make your own too

Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, miso and kimchi are great as well, but do not get pasteurized forms. That defeats the purpose.

I need to work on my gut too. Not only do I have depression and anxiety, I got a C diff infection in 2014 that still comes back occasionally.

[tanyev]

4. Interesting.

I had my first panic attack after I had developed some stomach troubles. Now several years later, both problems are doing much better, but I always thought of them as separate issues.

[Blue Owl]

5. Maybe Dubya really did think with his gut