From: gemini23x@gmail.com   
      
   Our gut bacteria can cause stress, anxiety and depression. So can you really   
   eat yourself happy?   
      
      
   The Essential Daily Briefing    
      
   Health    
      
   Why peace of mind begins in the belly    
      
   Stress can have an effect beyond the office (Photo: Three Lions/Getty Images)    
   Stress can have an effect beyond the office (Photo: Three Lions/Getty Images)    
   Siobhan Norton    
      
      
   13:33Saturday September 24th 2016    
      
   Our gut bacteria can cause stress, anxiety and depression. So can you really   
   eat yourself happy?    
      
   Ever get butterflies in your stomach before, say, an important meeting or hot   
   date? How about sheer, gut-clenching anxiety? Most of us are familiar with a   
   stress belly from time to time – but stress may be having a more serious   
   impact on our gut in our    
   day-to-day lives, and vice versa.    
      
   Our microbiome – or collection of gut bacteria – has been getting a lot of   
   column inches lately, with suggestions that the critters that help us digest   
   our food could be far more crucial to our health than previously thought. It   
   is even referred to    
   as the second brain. Bowel disorders are on the rise in the West, due to a   
   combination of lifestyle, excessive hygiene and poor diet wiping out our   
   “good bacteria” – and scientists believe a microbiome imbalance could be   
   contributing to chronic    
   conditions, and even affecting our brain.    
      
   “Getting stressed easily and being anxious in situations is commonly seen in   
   those who suffer from IBS”    
      
   Natalie Lamb    
      
   Gut flora    
      
   Studies have shown that stress and anxiety can exacerbate conditions such as   
   IBS, and in turn an imbalance in our gut bacteria can lead to more stress,   
   anxiety and depression. Poor diet and chronic stress are together making this   
   an endemic problem in    
   modern society, leading to a vicious cycle – how many of us reach for a   
   probiotic-packed healthy lunch when we’re feeling low? “Stress has   
   certainly been shown in studies to damage the gut lining and imbalance the gut   
   flora by reducing the number    
   of beneficial strains, such as lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, in turn   
   allowing an increase in the growth of pathogens such as E. coli,” says   
   nutritional therapist and Bio-Kult ambassador Natalie Lamb.    
      
   “However, those with an imbalanced gut flora have also been shown to have   
   lower stress resilience. Ever noticed that two individuals can react   
   completely differently to the same situation? Getting stressed easily and   
   being anxious in situations is    
   commonly seen in those who suffer from IBS, a condition strongly associated   
   with an imbalanced gut flora.”    
      
      
   So could our tendency to see red – or feel blue – all be down to a gut   
   feeling? The US National Institute of Mental Health believes so; it has spent   
   $1m researching the microbiome-brain connection. In 2014, a study by   
   University College Cork found    
   that mice born by caesarean (so hosting different bacteria to those born   
   naturally) appeared more anxious and showed symptoms of depression.    
      
   Microbiome    
      
   What’s perhaps even more interesting is how the brain can, in turn, have an   
   impact on our gut. A Canadian study published in the journal Biology Letters   
   earlier this year studied squirrel microbiomes and found that the more   
   stressed they were, the    
   lower their bacterial diversity. The researchers are planning further studies   
   to see whether the microbiome was impacted by the stress, or vice versa. A   
   2011 study by the University of Colorado Boulder exposed mice to social   
   stressors, which altered the    
   structure of the microbiome.    
      
   Perhaps our turns of phase should already have given us some insight into this   
   – how many things are “gut-wrenching”, or cause our stomach to   
   “flip”? When we’re stressed, our bodies go into “fight or flight”   
   mode, shutting down non-   
   essential functions to divert energy to the immediate emergency, including our   
   digestion. Being stressed means less oxygen is reaching our gut, our enzyme   
   output drops and our ability to absorb nutrients is affected.    
      
   So if we’re experiencing chronic stress, our digestive systems are, at best,   
   sluggish, which is perhaps part of the reason you bloat after gobbling your   
   lunch at your desk without taking a break – even if the food is healthy. On   
   top of this, our gut    
   houses our enteric nervous system, controlling the production of   
   “happiness” hormones such as dopamine and serotonin.    
      
      
   Stress    
      
   Stress doesn’t just affect those with desk jobs – in our increasingly busy   
   lives it can creep up on us on the commute, the school run, even the gym.   
   “Intensive exercise can have a big impact on levels of stress exerted on the   
   body,” says Lamb. So    
   even gym bunnies might be battling stress bellies.    
      
   The solution appears to be twofold: reduce stress in your everyday life, while   
   tackling any gut imbalance with a varied, prebiotic-food filled diet and   
   probiotics. Lamb advises leaving your desk to eat a proper meal at lunchtime,   
   which helps to tackle    
   both problems. “Include some form of relaxation in your daily routine, such   
   as yoga (inset), meditation, breathing exercises or walking, end the day with   
   a nice warm bath and try to get around seven hours of uninterrupted sleep a   
   night,” she says.    
      
   Diet, too, is all-important. Include fermented foods such as kimchi,   
   sauerkraut and live natural yoghurt for a hit of good bacteria. “Reduce the   
   intake of stimulating simple sugars, refined carbohydrates, caffeine and   
   alcohol that could destabilise    
   blood-sugar levels. Opt instead for a natural wholefood diet high in a variety   
   of colourful vegetables, pasture-fed meat, fish and eggs.”    
      
      
      
      
      
   https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/health/peace-mind-begins-belly/    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)