Over the past few years, there has been a boom in the realm of “gut health”. This spectrum ranges from nutritionists on social media informing people how beneficial it is to “heal your gut”, to neuroscientists and biologists discovering the relationship between the gut and the brain. While it may seem like just a trend to eat unprocessed foods and take a prebiotic or probiotic pill, there is some truth to taking care of your gut.
At first, it may sound strange that the stomach can contribute to sleep disorders and mental disorders like anxiety. But, there are 100 times more microbial genes than there are human genes! Numerous common factors can disrupt the microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) axis such as stress, jetlag, and poor diet. The MGB axis is the term for the “bidirectional communication between the brain and gut microbiota” (Hemmings et al., 2018). There are direct and indirect pathways of communication between the gut, the central nervous system (CNS), and the immune system. This shows just how important of a role the microbiome has in overall human functioning.
One of many studies conducted by researcher Dr. Martha Hotz Vitaterna highlights how disruptions in the circadian rhythm (e.g., sleep disruptions) treated with a prebiotic diet led to an increase in REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. Bowers et al. (2022) gave rats a prebiotic diet, specifically galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and polydextrose (PDX), to improve recovery sleep after disruptions. While this study was performed on rats, it is relevant to humans in the modern world. Often, our circadian rhythms are disrupted by jetlag, stress, caffeine, and most importantly– screen time. In addition to circadian rhythm disruption, it is important to mention diet. When we think of the typical western diet, words such as “nutrient-lacking” and “unhealthy” come to mind. A healthy microbiome is diverse and balanced, so a diet that maintains a healthy gut must be the same. Taking this extra step to be mindful of nutrition may help the body adjust to large disruptions and stressors.
Similarly, Hemmings et al. (2018) conducted a study that helps understand the importance of the microbiome. Mental health is highly prevalent in the United States and has significantly increased since the beginning of the pandemic. Looking into the microbiome as a “potential therapeutic target” is what Hemmings et al. (2018) aimed to do. They focused primarily on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) pathway that controls stress reactivity. They gave a probiotic strain to medical students preparing for a national exam to measure the effect on their psychological, physiological, and physical stress(Hemmings et al., 2018). They found that the MGB axis has a very important role in programming the HPA axis, therefore there is a connection between the emotional processing structures of the brain and the microbiome-gut-brain axis.
Microbiome research is still underway, therefore the connections between mental disorders like anxiety and the MGB axis are not well studied yet. The relationships found so far are a solid starting point to the endless scientific exploration of the nervous system and its connections to further understand potential causes of neuropsychological issues. So, the next time you feel exhausted from sleep deprivation or you are stressed out for a job interview, try to fit fermented food into your daily diet or a probiotic supplement.
Works Cited
Bowers, Samuel J., Keith C. Summa, Robert S. Thompson, Antonio González, Fernando Vargas, Christopher Olker, Peng Jiang, et al. “A Prebiotic Diet Alters the Fecal Microbiome and Improves Sleep in Response to Sleep Disruption in Rats.” Frontiers in Neuroscience 16 (2022). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.889211
Hemmings, Sian M.J., et al. “The Gut Microbiome and Mental Health: Implications for Anxiety- and Trauma-Related Disorders.” Omics : a Journal of Integrative Biology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28767318/.
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