Gut Health and Our Mind - Why It's Important

Do you need one more reason to eat a diet of whole grains, vegetables, lean meats, fruits and good quality oils instead of processed, fried, sugary and overly salted foods? Then think about the gut-brain connection and how it influences your mental health. The microbiome is getting more attention these days, and it is worthy of the spotlight.

What is the microbiome?

It is something that has a much bigger effect on your mood and emotions that you may realize. Thousands of years ago the rishis who shared the knowledge of āyurveda said all health and disease could be traced back to the gut - and modern science with its study of psychobiotics is catching up to understand how true that is.

The microbiome, simply put, is the community of bacteria that live in our body. The bacteria live in several places like the mouth, the skin, the lungs, the nose, etc. but the main location is the colon. The microbiome communicates to our brain via the autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve so it has a lot of power over our feelings, our moods, and our energy levels. Of course it also effects our digestion and overall immune function.

Lots of things effect our microbiome like stress levels, trauma, the environment and toxins present, medications and antibiotics, circadian rhythms and sleep patterns, and our diet. We can work on all of these things to effect our microbiome but our diet may be a good first place to start.  If we have a poor diet, we may be colonizing improper bacteria and creating chronic inflammation in our gut. Not only could this lead to Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and conditions like Ulcerative Colitis, but it can also contribute to Depression, Anxiety, mood disorders and ongoing PTSD symptoms from previous trauma.

You may have heard that about 95% of our bodies serotonin is made in the gut - this also shows how the mood and the digestive system are interrelated. So again, working with your diet is a great place to start if you are trying to improve your mental health.

So how do we build a healthy microbiome? Eat a seasonal and varied diet of whole foods. Include lots of fiber in the diet as gut bacteria need to feed on fiber. It provides the material for them to make short chain fatty acids which we need to support our immune system, endocrine system and brain. The modern western diet has less fiber than ever before, and combined with packaged and processed food, our microbiome can be dominated by unhelpful bacteria that affect our mood, our vitality, our endocrine balance and our immunity. Sometimes we may need to colonize the gut with pre and probiotics while making a diet change to support the bacteria we want to increase. This can have dramatic effects on our mental health, especially when we also increase the healthy fats in our diet to support our overall nervous system and brain health.

When we have a friendly microbiome and our digestive system is functioning well, our vagus nerve is able to send signals to the brain that reflect a more stable and safe environment. This supports the Vāta dosha in finding more stability, too, which supports all systems in the body.