I’ve posted about the evolving understanding of the symbiotic relationship between humans and bacteria in the past, so I was intrigued by a story that I chased back to this medical news release site that says scientists have established a link between using probiotics and brain function.
Probiotics is a term used a bit vaguely and in a variety of contexts. Wikipedia says probiotics are “live microorganisms thought to be beneficial to the host organism”. In the public vernacular, we associate the word “probiotics” with things like yogurt with active yeast, or the lactase pills that people with lactose intolerance take when they consume dairy to counteract gastric distress (a situation I am all too familiar with these days). You probably have seen those ads for a brand of yogurt pitched by Jamie Lee Curtis where they basically plug the stuff for helping people poop more regularly.
The new study concludes that mice who consumed soup that had the lactobacillus found in those yogurt products had lower levels of stress hormones and exhibited less anxious or depressed behavior. The scientists confirmed their hypothesis by severing the vagus nerve in the mice — the vagus nerve is the primary nerve connection from the brain to the gut — and observing the return of stress hormones in the mice who got the special soup.
If eating Jamie Lee Curtis’s yogurt will reduce stress, depression and anxiety, maybe they’ll stop running those embarrassing ads where all the women make that gesture about pooping.
