Step 21:  Check Probiotic Intake!

 

 

Hi! How are you doing? Are you still losing weight?

This Step is to check how we are feeling. We have already explained how and why inflammation can become a chronical condition which can cause several kinds of diseases. Therefore, eliminating inflammation is an enormous advance towards losing weight and improving our health.

We also have stated the relevance of a healthy gut and an overall digestive system since it directly affects our whole body systems’ health and the brain’s as well.

Having a balanced microbiome is the key to having a healthy digestive tract. A balanced probiotic and prebiotic intake is the way to having a healthy microbiome, hence, a healthy digestive system and then as a consequence a strong healthy body.

We are what we eat!

So, the importance of adding probiotics to our daily diet is yet to be established by this information.

According to several articles published by Harvard Medical School, the intestinal microbiome may play a more relevant role than we imagined in our mood and brain health.

“The intestine has its own separate nervous system and generates many of the same neurotransmitters (including acetylcholine and serotonin) that the brain generates. These neurotransmitters are very important in promoting gut motility, and too much or too little of them may result in constipation or diarrhoea. Similarly, we believe that the brain and the gut can talk to each other (brain-gut axis).” 1

 

Therefore, it is more than possible that our gut influences our mood, and vice versa, our mood influences our gut. Especially, if we consider that every time we eat something we like our brain and gut produces several neurotransmitters like endorphins and dopamine.

“There is growing evidence that mood disorders may be related to overall inflammation and to changes in the microbiome, the bacteria that live in our digestive tract. We have learned that probiotics may help improve a variety of health conditions, in part due to an anti-inflammatory effect.”   2

 

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine designed an interesting study,

“This research supports an assertion that overall inflammation is associated with gut inflammation, which in turn can modulate mood disorders.”    

“The evidence of a “gut-brain axis principle” is more robust, especially after some studies showing that the type of bacteria that live in our bowels could cause brain inflammation.”    3

 

This research indicates that we could potentially manage mood and even anxiety, depression and other psychiatric diseases merely by changing the makeup of our microbiome.

Other Harvard Medical School paper shows hints of a link between food and mood:

“The research regarding dietary factors and depression is still inconclusive,” says Patricia Chocano-Bedoya, a visiting scientist in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But there have been hints that food may play a role in depression.    4

 

That said, there’s still good reason to focus on your diet in the hopes of protecting your mental health.

“There is consistent evidence for a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern and lower risk of depression,” says Chocano-Bedoya.    5

 

A Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, olive oil, whole grains, and lean protein such as chicken and fish and low in red meat and unhealthy fats.

Besides, “the Mediterranean diet has also been associated with lower blood pressure, better cognitive function, and lower incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular events,” says Chocano-Bedoya. “I would recommend an overall healthy, high-quality dietary pattern, such as a Mediterranean-style diet, not only for the potential to reduce depression risk but also for overall lower risk of other chronic conditions, which in themselves may later increase the risk of depression.”   6

 

 

 

 

CONCLUDING
1. Let’s check our probiotic and prebiotic intake in our daily diet to assure a healthy microbiome to eliminate overall inflammation (even brain inflammation).

2. As an additional aid, let’s keep a healthy microbiome to avoid depression and anxiety.

3. A healthy microbiome will cause a healthy body and a healthy mind.

“Mens sana in corpore sano”  

“Healthy mind in healthy body”

4. Let’s try a Mediterranean diet and see how we feel. What could we lose?

 

I am Love … I am Success!

 

 

1. Athos Bousvaros, MD; Can Probiotics help treat depression and anxiety?; Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School; July 26, 2017

2. Marcelo Campos, Probiotics for bipolar disorder mania; Harvard Health Publishing,
Harvard Medical School; June 25, 2018

3. Ibid

4. Food – Good Bacteria in your microbiome – and mood;  Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School;  Published: June, 2018

5. Ibid

6. Ibid