Probiotics may ease your anxiety and depression

The plethora of microbes living in the human gut not only affect people’s physical health, they may also influence mental health. Recent studies in animals show that changes in the gut bacteria community appear to make mice less anxious, and also affect levels of the stress hormone cortisol. And a new study from England found that supplements that boost “good” bacteria in the gut (called “prebiotics”) may alter the way people process emotional information, suggesting that changes in gut bacteria may have anti-anxiety effects.

It’s becoming a very interesting question in the field. We’re still waiting for that convincing human study.

Dr. Roger McIntyre, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Toronto

In the new study, 45 healthy people ages 18 to 45 took either a prebiotic or a placebo, every day for three weeks. At the end of the study, they completed several computer tests to assess how they processed emotional information. During one test, people who took the prebiotic paid less attention to negative information, and more attention to positive information, compared with those who took a placebo. The finding suggests that the people in the prebiotic group had “less anxiety about negative or threatening stimuli,” said study author Philip Burnet, a researcher in the University of Oxford’s department of psychiatry.

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