Study Finds Lack of These Two Gut Bacteria May Lead to Depression
As studies of our microbiota become more focused, scientists have realized that our guts are inextricably linked to the brain and its functions. We now know our gut definitively factors into decision making, though we’ve probably known this informally for hundreds of years, hence the phrase “go with your gut instinct.” And now a new study believes it has pinpointed two specific species of bacteria that, when missing from our microbiome, may lead to depression.
According to the study recently published in the journal Nature Microbiology, out of a group of 2,000 participants, researchers found that those reporting symptoms of depression were lacking two particular strains of bacteria in their gut – Coprococcus and Dialister.
Coprococcus in particular was found to be a pathway for dopamine, the neurotransmitter believed to play a role in our brain’s reward system – one that’s known to dysregulate in people experiencing depression.
Though their results are only early indicators that will require significantly more research to be applicable for any future treatment, these two bacterial strains could lead to a future in which doctors might prescribe probiotics to treat mental disorders, or what some are referring to as “psychobiotics.”
The ability for our gut bacteria to send neurotransmitters between the brain and our gut’s brain, the enteric nervous system, is not found in bacteria outside of our guts and is believed to have evolved as we did.
This enteric nervous system, often called our second brain, contains somewhere in the range of 200 to 500 million neuronal pathways of its own – about the same as a dog’s brain – and communicates with the cerebellum through a two-way highway called the vagus nerve.
Our gut microbiome has something in the range of 500 to 1000 different species of bacteria, with scientists continuously discovering new ones. And in this most recent study, of the more than 500 strains tested, 90 percent of those strains were capable of producing neurotransmitters.
These bugs in our gut form somewhere in the range of three to five pounds of biomass and have essentially evolved to control our behavior. Along with the fungi, viruses, archaea, and other microbial cells, our guts are believed to contain somewhere in the range of 37 trillion bacterial cells. And unless we proactively maintain them, losing diversity in our microbiota can have severely negative side-effects. Now we’re closer to knowing that depression may be one of them.
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New Dr. Joe Dispenza Study Shows Meditators’ Blood Resists Illness
A cutting-edge, new study by Dr. Joe Dispenza is showing the connection between meditation and our body’s capacity to heal itself.
“Our nervous system tends to be the greatest pharmacy in the world,” Dr. Joe Dispenza said.
Dr. Joe Dispenza has spent a career, as he puts it, “demystifying the mystical” to that end. After leading week-long meditation retreats for years, he noticed miraculous changes among the participants, with some even claiming to have long-standing afflictions cured, seemingly by meditation alone. So, he decided to put it to scientific testing and partnered with the University of California San Diego biology department.
They tested advanced meditators, novice meditators, and a control group, and the results have been fascinating.
“We started looking closely at cellular function, and we started measuring thousands of cellular metabolites that determine whether a cell is in growth and repair or a cell is in breakdown,” Dr. Joe Dispenza said. “At the end of seven days, I get a call from our senior research analyst and he says ‘We have some really compelling things to show you,’ and we saw dramatic changes in the biology of advanced meditators. So when we started looking at the cellular function, we noticed along with the change in cellular function (for those people that watch Rewired) there was this arousal that was taking place in the person’s brain and in their nervous system. The arousal wasn’t pain, the arousal wasn’t fear, and the arousal wasn’t anger or aggression — which typically causes an arousal from the sympathetic nervous system — the person was reporting an arousal and the only word they could use was ‘ecstasy’ or ‘bliss,’ they had made some connection with something. So when we captured the blood of these people and when they made some type of connection, we noticed some really powerful effects in their blood plasma.”
But when they took the blood samples of these meditators into the lab they were in for a big surprise.
