More and more we are becoming aware of how our gut health plays a complex role in maintaining and impacting overall health – the evidence continues to pile up. One recent review of the scientific literature has now found that regulating gut bacteria may help relieve the symptoms of anxiety.
Recent research suggests that the bacteria that naturally populate the human gut may play an extensive role not just in a person’s physical health, but also in their mental well-being. One study drew a link between certain groups of bacteria and a higher risk of mental health conditions, including depression. Another suggested that our gut bacteria may influence certain brain mechanisms and contribute to anxiety.
A recent review in the journal General Psychiatry, emphasize the idea that scientists should not ignore the possible role of the intestinal bacteria when providing solutions for mental health. The study evaluated the results of 21 studies — involving 1,503 participants in all — that looked at different interventions to regulate the intestinal bacteria and whether they had any effect on symptoms of anxiety. The researchers note in their introduction that although studies in mice have suggested that interventions that regulate intestinal bacterial populations can be helpful in reducing behaviors consistent with a state of anxiety, there is currently no scientific consensus regarding the effectiveness of these interventions in humans.
The Review
Of the 21 studies reviewed, 14 chose probiotics as interventions to regulate intestinal bacteria and six chose non-probiotic ways (such as adjusting daily diets) to produce improved giut health. Probiotic supplements in seven studies contained only one kind of probiotic, two studies used a product that contained two kinds of probiotics and the supplements used in the other five studies included at least three kinds of probiotics.
In the studies that used treatment as usual plus interventions regulating intestinal flora (IRIF) as interventions (five studies), only non-probiotic ways were effective (two studies), which means 40% of studies were effective. In the studies that used IRIF alone (16 studies, 11 studies used probiotic ways and 5 studies used non-probiotic ways), 56% of studies could improve anxiety symptoms, and 80% of studies that conducted the non-probiotic interventions were effective, while 45% of studies that used probiotic supplementations had positive effects on anxiety symptoms.
Overall, 11 studies showed a positive effect on anxiety symptoms by regulating intestinal microbiota, which indicated 52% of the 21 studies were effective, and there were five studies that used probiotic supplements as interventions and six used non-probiotic interventions. In addition, it should be noted that six of seven studies showed that regulation of intestinal bacteria could treat anxiety symptoms, the rate of efficacy was 86%.
Conclusions
This research shows that regulating gut bacteria in more than half of the studies showed a positive improvement in anxiety symptoms. The research went further to study the improvement in anxiety using probiotic and non-probiotic based methods of improving gut bacteria. Interestingly, the non-probiotic approaches were more effective than the probiotic approaches.
While more studies are needed to clarify this conclusion. It appears that adopting a gut healthy diet such as the Microbiome Diet
In our next blog we will review the Microbiome Diet.
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