Reading the Research: Probiotics and Your Brain

Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.

Today's article underlines how the gut affects the whole body, and why taking care of it can help support a healthy mind as well as body.  One wouldn't typically think of the intestinal tract as an important key in how well the brain functions, but as we've found out recently, the intestinal area contain neurons (enteric nervous system) that are linked to your brain via the spinal cord.  If your gut is unhappy or out of balance, often your brain will be as well.

This study is a research review, which means the authors trawled research databases for studies done by others around a certain topic.  In this case, they were looking for studies about probiotics, prebiotics, depression, and anxiety.  The idea in lining up all this research is to find out, in a broader sense, what the research shows about the effects of probiotics and prebiotics on depression and anxiety.  

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the good bacteria strains studied helped people manage their depression better.  I say "perhaps unsurprisingly" because I also take probiotics (bought from a medical source, not off the store shelves), and it helps me.  

If anyone is wondering or wants to try probiotics that definitely do something (and are on the list of things they mention in this article as working), the probiotics I use are these: Theralac and TruBifido.  They're comparatively expensive, but on the other hand, you're basically shredding up your money and stuffing it down the drain when you buy probiotic products from a grocery store.  Also, I only need to take one of each a week and that's sufficient, so the bottles last more than half a year.  

Notably, repairing one's gut is not like taking a painkiller.  It's a process that can take weeks, so patience is required and the changes may be gradual.  Still, I found it worthwhile, as it's reduced the severity of my dysthymia and anxiety.  

(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)