Is there a link between gut bacteria and mental health?

The gut and the gut microbiome have become hot topics recently, with many studies being undertaken to to discover how they work and what links they may have to our mental and physical health.

The latest is research at the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology and the Catholic University of Leuven who have made a preliminary discovery into the difference between the gut health of those with and without depression.

Publlished in Nature Microbiology, researchers studied medical tests and GP records to look for links between depression, quality of life and the microbes lurking in the faeces of more than 1,000 people enrolled in the Flemish Gut Flora Project.

What the scientists learnt is that two bugs Faecalibacterium and Coprococcus were commonly found in people who said they had good mental health. On the flip side, those with depression had lower than average levels of Coprococcus and Dialister.

This study has not yet proven the link between gut microbes and mental health. What is showing however, is the possibility that the effect also works the other way around. Which means that your mental health may influence how your microbiome works. In follow-up experiments, the scientists found gut microbes can at least talk to the human nervous system by producing neurotransmitters that are crucial for good mental health. Interestingly, the same study discovered microbiomes which live outside the body are not able to make the same kinds of neurotransmitters, this is thought to happen because they did not co-exist with humans.

If a connection between low level bacteria and depression can be found, the door may open to a whole world of exciting possibilities and potential discoveries.

If you would like to read the full report published in Nature Biology click here or for a shorter version click here for the Guardian Australia.