A Gut Feeling: How Your Microbiome Affects Cognitive Health
A gut feeling: an instinct or intuition, an immediate or basic feeling or reaction without a logical rationale. We’ve all experienced a gut feeling before. Maybe it’s happened when your friends peer pressure you into doing something questionable, or when you’re playing a sport and are certain of what your opponent will do. But why exactly does it stem from the gut? Well, I’m here to tell you that perhaps, this figure of speech isn’t just figurative — research shows that the state of your gut microbiome directly affects your brain functions and cognitive health.
Meet Your Microbial Roommates
The gut microbiota is the community of microscopic organisms in your gastrointestinal tract, consisting of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and more. Although these sound scary, many of these microbes play essential roles in digestion, immune regulation, and even brain health. Pretty much, whatever happens to the gut will affect the brain. You can read more about this system on Dr. Church’s blog page here.
How do these things affect our mood and cognitive health?
How do these tiny organisms regulate something as big as your brain? Well, one of the ways they do it is that certain bacteria in your microbiome create SCFA’s (Short Chain Fatty Acids). These molecules then play important roles at the neuron level, regulating processes like neuroinflammation. Other bacteria in the microbiome help produce vital neurotransmitters (how your nerves communicate with each other) like serotonin and GABA. So what happens when these processes are disrupted?
It’s not pretty. When the gut microbiota becomes imbalanced or disrupted — known as dysbiosis — it can disrupt this communication pathway. Studies have linked gut dysbiosis to increased levels of neuroinflammation and abnormal amyloid-beta accumulation, which is a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Moral of the story? Maintain your gut, and your brain will be healthier and happier. In mouse models, introducing a healthy microbiome has even reversed some cognitive impairments, showing just how powerful gut health can be for the brain. But how can you do this?
Listen to Your Gut
It all starts with the diet. At AbioMe, we have plenty of resources on our page to help you create a well-balanced diet that your microbiome will love. In addition, some studies show that switching to a Mediterranean diet can reduce inflammation and diversify the gut microbiome, further reinforcing the fact that a healthy gut will lead to a healthy mind. So the next time you are deciding what to eat, go with your gut feeling — eat what’s best for your gut, and good things will happen.