According to one of the articles from this week, different types of psychological stress are able to affect the composition of gut microbiomes. Some examples of stress include heat stress or maternal separation. There has been much prior research completed that indicates that the change in the gut microbes could affect our behavior. The phrase gut-brain axis refers to the role that gut microbiota play in event signaling between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system.
The microbial communities in the body could influence the brain and mental health stress because if microbial health is poor, it plays a role in the brain/mental health because of the holistic approach in the human body. A theory that I thought of after reading the article is that poor microbial health leads to the development of illnesses such as gastritis. The conditions and pain induced from poor microbial health could alter a person’s mood.
The brain and mental health states could influence microbial communities in the body because our body produces many different kinds of hormones when we are feeling a certain way. Some examples of hormones produced by the human body are epinephrine, melatonin, and triiodothyronine. The hormones could cause an adverse effect on microbial health. For example, the hormone triiodothyronine is used to increase the metabolism in the body and this will have an effect on our microbial health as well. Our gut microbiomes can create neurotransmitters which will affect the brain and mental health state. Another study performed on mice showed that when microbes were transferred from normal mice to germ-free mice, it altered the brain chemistry and their behavior.
A study that has been done on people with clinical depression and taking mood-altering drugs show that the dysbiosis caused by the drugs could be mitigated by introducing beneficial gut microbiota. The relationship between brain/mental health and gut flora could promote human health because if you do things that will benefit your microbial health such as taking probiotics or avoiding antibiotic use, it will also cause a positive effect on mental health states due to their relationship.
