Science is discovering links between what we eat and how we feel, and nurturing the good bacteria in our guts has been proven beneficial to ward off illnesses, diseases, and a bad mood. While many products claim to have probiotics in them, which of these microbiota has shown to alleviate a bad mood?
According to Time, “Bifidobacterium, lactobacillus and lactococcus [are] types of bacteria that some research suggests are effective at easing anxious and depressive symptoms.”
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Psychobiotics, a term coined in a research paper by Drs. John Cryan and Ted Dinan at the University College Cork,
according to The New York Times, suggests that there are microbes in our intestines that transmit signals to the brain. The absence of these microbes could be associated with causes of a bad mood. The Times also reported that neurochemicals that have been linked to happiness — dopamine and serotonin — largely come from the intestines.
The Huffington Post reported that dopamine motivates us to pursue our desires while a shortage of the neurochemical can stymie those efforts. The Post also reported that serotonin levels are responsible for our feelings of self-worth and connectedness.
Without dopamine and serotonin, our feelings can easily derail beyond a bad mood and into depression.
In the experiments that led to Drs. Cryan and Dinan’s paper, some of the stress-tested mice were given the lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria, which performed better under duress. ‘‘They behaved as if they were on Prozac,’’ Cryan told The New York Times.
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‘‘They were more chilled out and more relaxed,’’ Cryan said of mice given the probiotic compared with the control group of mice that were just given a broth during the stress experiments.
The same probiotic can be found in humans and probiotic yogurt,
according to the Times.
According to Psychology Today, French researchers did human studies using doses of lactobacillus and bifidobacterium probiotics, which “yielded beneficial psychological effects including lowered depression, less anger and hostility, anxiety, and better problem solving, compared with the placebo group.”
A study at Leiden University in the Netherlands gave human participants a course of multiple species of bifidobacterium and lactococcus probiotics over a four-week period in which the test group “showed a significantly reduced overall cognitive reactivity to sad mood, which was largely accounted for by reduced rumination and aggressive thoughts” compared with the placebo-fed control group.
Both of these probiotics are bacteria derived from lactic acid and can be found in humans as well as certain dairy products.
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