A groundbreaking study published in Nature Mental Health reveals that our gut health plays a crucial role in how we handle stress. Researchers found a specific combination of gut microbes and metabolites linked to higher resilience against anxiety and depression. This discovery suggests that modifying our gut microbiome could potentially improve mental health outcomes. Lead author Arpana Church highlighted the study’s focus on health rather than disease, emphasizing the importance of a balanced gut for optimal brain function. The findings open doors for future treatments that could include probiotics, dietary changes, and mindfulness practices to enhance stress resilience and overall well-being.
Amy Denney from the Epoch Times reports …
A new study published on Friday in Nature Mental Health offers new evidence that the gut and brain collaborate to establish stress resilience, adding to a growing body of research indicating that the gut may be a potential mechanism to help prevent or reduce stress-related psychiatric illnesses.
A high-resilience phenotype of the gut microbiome was found as a combination of bacteria and metabolites with anti-inflammatory and gut-barrier integrity properties. This phenotype was linked to decreased levels of anxiety and depression.
Aside from microbial features, the study used clinical and psychiatric assessment methods, as well as MRIs, to analyze the brain’s structural and functional roles. The study comprised 116 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 60.
The major conclusion implies that “the microbiome is critical in shaping resilience” and that changing the gut microbiota “can optimize mental health.”
Understanding Stress
Arpana Church, the study’s lead author and an associate professor at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, told The Epoch Times that delving into the relationships between stress and the body can assist prevent or treat mental and physical illnesses.
Not only that, but stress is an unavoidable part of the human experience, she added, noting that 77 percent of Americans feel physical symptoms of stress, with 33 percent reporting high stress.
According to the report, stress costs the United States $300 billion each year in healthcare costs and missed time from work.
“What really makes the study unique is that we often focus on stress, the negative, or the disease group,” said Ms. Church, who is also co-director of the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center.
“Usually in medicine, we really focus on disease, how to cure disease, how to better understand the underlying mechanism of disease, and what I wanted to do was flip the script.”
Instead, the study focused on resilient people’s health and microbiota features.
Resiliency Equates to Health
The study found major changes in microorganisms and metabolites between persons with high and low resilience. High resiliency was linked to biomarkers showing greater gut barrier integrity, lower depression and anxiety disorders, improved cognitive function, decreased gray matter volume in the brain, and increased functional connectivity in the brain.
A compromised or damaged gut barrier, often known as “leaky gut,” is thought to be a contributing cause to a variety of chronic disorders. Dysbiosis, or an imbalance in gut bacteria, is linked to chronic diseases and inflammation.
An analysis of the gut microbiome in high-resilience individuals revealed elevated levels of microorganisms and compounds that are:
- Better at environmental adaptation
- Able to replicate and repair DNA
- Better at carbohydrate and energy metabolism
- Anti-inflammatory
According to Ms. Church, high-resilient people are also more nonjudgmental, easygoing, friendly, outgoing, and thoughtful. They reported decreased levels of subjective stress and neuroticism.
She compared the interaction between the gut and the brain to an automobile with functional brakes.
“If you have great working brakes, you’re able to modulate or control the situation, have emotional regulation and cognitive response,” she told me. “And they had gut bacteria and metabolites associated with reduced inflammation and better gut barrier integrity.”
Clinical Implications
The discoveries may pave the way for novel mental health interventions. Vanessa Ruiz noted that resiliency has typically been thought of as a psychological quality associated with a person’s agency, will, mental grit, and ability to apply cognitive techniques.
Ms. Ruiz told The Epoch Times in an email interview that employing such ways to increase resiliency demands metabolic energy, and that looking at stress as resiliency in a more holistic way will benefit practitioners and patients. Ms. Ruiz, a naturopathic doctor and national speaker on adverse childhood experiences, lectures at Rewire Trauma Therapy.
“Stress is a hypermetabolic state, suggesting that resilience may be linked to a state of metabolic endurance during stressful times,” says Ms. Ruiz. “The role of the microbiome in adapting to these changes is particularly exciting.”
“This study … offers a more holistic perspective on resilience adaptations, emphasizing the dynamic interplay between the microbiome, neuroplasticity, and stress adaptations,” she continued. “Although this doesn’t provide causality, it can help to elucidate a relationship to stress resiliency.”
It makes sense, Ms. Ruiz explained, that someone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) would lose bodily and psychological adaption, resulting in a loss of resilience. Previous research has also found a reduction of gut microbial diversity in those suffering from PTSD.
Gut microbiota produces metabolites, including neurotransmitters such as serotonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which are involved in stress-related psychopathology.
“Most people don’t realize how much impact the gut has on our brain and specifically the way we produce mood-modulating neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin,” said Chelsea Blackbird, a nutritionist and co-owner of The School of Christian Health and Nutrition. “These important hormones help govern the way we feel and handle stress. Good gut health supports good mental health.”
Ms. Blackbird told The Epoch Times in an email that when she works with clients who want help with their gut health, they typically see an increase in their brain health, such as greater cognition, clarity, or mood.
“People don’t normally associate their gut health with their mental health but it is often a root cause of anxiety, depression, poor focus, and other mental conditions. Many people are able to avoid pharmaceutical prescriptions for these issues once they restore a healthy gut microbiome,” she said.
Hope for the Future
Ms. Church suggested that in the future, gut-boosting measures such as probiotics, prebiotics, other supplements, and nutrition could be utilized to treat mental health conditions in the same way that we counsel one other to take vitamin C when we sense a cold coming on.
“It [the study] has implications for how we can boost resilience because all these things are changeable, manipulatable,” she told me. “It’s not like you have cancer, and that’s it. You can actually implement a lot of things that can boost these brain and gut microbiome and behavioral variables.”
Because of the bidirectional relationship, brain-boosting techniques may be beneficial to gut health.
“We can focus on stress tolerance and the burden of stress on these body systems. Maybe on the brain level, thinking about resilience training, mindfulness, or just being kind or non-judgmental,” Ms. Church said.
She also recommends a diet that:
- Is high in fiber
- Includes probiotics
- Minimizes artificial sweeteners, processed foods, and added sugars
- Is balanced and diverse
“We don’t need to go on any diets. We just need to add 30 different diverse fruits and vegetables per week to our diet. I think that would really help boost a good, healthy gut microbiome and support optimal brain functioning and even well-being,” Ms. Church said.
In the future, she said, researchers will conduct clinical studies to assess food modifications, probiotics and prebiotics, and brain-directed medicines.
“Looking at ways we can manipulate the brain and the gut microbiome to prevent disease—or at least slowdown progression—will be huge in the future but also will empower people to implement these on their own,” Ms. Church said.
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