The Mind-Gut Connection
By Devin Eastman, APCC, PsyD Student, BCN
Did you know that the vast majority of our serotonin is generated in the gut? The gut is a vital component of brain health, and understanding the gut better can lead to increased mental health, executive functioning, and digestion. In the gut, there are good bacteria and bad bacteria. Weneed them both to create a balanced relationship in the body. However, too many bad bacteria can counteract the effects of the good. This looks like irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, and stomach pain. A long-term imbalance of bad bacteria can even lead to health issues and illnesses.
So why does it matter to our brain that our gut be balanced? Because 80% of the interactions between the brain and gut are from the gut to the brain. Only 20% of these interactions are from the brain to the gut. This means that when our gut is imbalanced, it sends signals through the body to tell the brain we are imbalanced. This can cause depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental issues. Some day-to-day examples of how our gut and brain are connected are the way we discuss the gut in our day-to-day lives. When we are nervous, we have butterflies in our gut, when we are confident, we trust our gut instinct. This connection has been heavily studied over the past decade as we examine ways that changes to the diet can treat different mental illnesses such as ADHD and Autism. There are strong correlations in this research between cutting out certain foods and managing gut health to non-medication decreases in symptoms of these disorders.
So how do you balance your gut? The good bacteria feed off prebiotics. Prebiotics allow the good bacteria to thrive and create a balance with the bad bacteria. We can increase our prebiotic intake with foods that contain fiber such as vegetables, chia seeds, and fruits. Probiotics replace the good bacteria in your gut. They add in new ones that the prebiotics can feed. Probiotics are particularly important if you are doing anything in your lifestyle that increases the bad bacteria in the gut such as taking antibiotics, eating high levels of processed foods, or eating foods high in sugar. Probiotics can be found in food such as Greek yogurt, Keifer, and kombucha. These foods are essential to balancing the gut and increasing the symbiotic relationship in the brain.
In the best-case scenario, we never eat highly processed foods or consume added sugars, and we are avoiding chemicals and complex preservatives in our gut. However, this is unrealistic for most lifestyles, and some research promotes the benefit of balance in our diet. So, what can you do if you want to increase your gut health but don’t want to make an overarching lifestyle change?
Step One: Add Probiotics, this is the best way to start focusing on your gut health and evaluating the ways you see it change the way your brain functions.
Step Two: Add variety in the fruits and vegetables you are eating. Ideally, we should be eating at least thirty different fruits and vegetables each week. This creates biodiversity in the gut, increases fiber that feeds the good bacteria, and aids in creating a healthier environment for your body and mind.
Recommendations: Try replacing your breakfast with Greek yogurt and berries in the morning and evaluate how your energy shifts and changes through the week. My favorite way to add in some protein and probiotics to my morning is by making a High Protein Apple Dip with the following recipe:
Mix 1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt, ¼ cup of peanut butter, 2 tablespoons of honey, and a dash on cinnamon. Then I slice some apples and sprinkle them with cinnamon and dip them into the yogurt mixture. This is a delicious way to add probiotics from the yogurt, fiber from the apples, protein from the peanut butter, and anti-inflammatory properties from the cinnamon.
Another recommendation is to create a superfood smoothie. Smoothies are better than juicing because a juicer can remove the fiber from fruits and vegetables and leave you with a high-sugar content drink. Gut specialists recommend putting as many leftover fruits and vegetables as you have in your fridge in a blender and starting your day with a wide variety of fiber and vitamins. It may not taste good but it will feel good!
If you are interested in learning more about the mind-gut connection, I recommend the one-hour Netflix special “Hack your Health.”
This blog post is based on the speech at Newport Healthcare by:
Maria Steiner-Renoir, PMHNP, FNP, is an integrative psychiatric provider who uses a holistic approach to help adults facing anxiety, depression, grief, mood disorders, life role transitions, and trauma/PTSD to regain their vitality and centeredness, create better understanding of self, and achieve closer relationships with others.
