Gut Bacteria May Have Something Do With Your Mental Health: Study

There may be a link between your gut microbes and mental health.

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Microbes that reside in your gut may be linked to your mental health, a new study into the connection of gut bacteria and well-being has found.

The researchers observed that people who have depression had constantly low levels of two bacteria, Coprococcus and Dialister. And the consumption of anti-depressants does not affect the levels.

This could pave the way for a new wave of treatment for mental health disorders based on probiotics, if the results of this study stand ground in further research, reports The Guardian. This type of treatment may focus on increasing the amount of “good bacteria” in the intestines.

However, the study reported in Nature Microbiology doesn’t conclusively say that the type and level of gut bacteria affect your mental health. It only draws a comparison between the type of bacteria in people who claim to be mentally healthy and ones who have depression – high levels of Faecalibacterium and Coprococcus are common in the former and low levels of Coprococcus and Dialister in the latter.

On the other hand, their experiments have found that gut microbes have a role of play in influencing the nervous system. They found that many bacteria can produce neurotransmitters that are crucial for good mental health. For example, they can help in production of dopamine and serotonin, imbalance of both are linked to depression.

Further research is needed to back this link of gut microbes and mental health.