Dr. Gina's Blog

Naturopathic medicine has known this for centuries but now there is some promising new research demonstrating that the health of the gut affects a woman’s brain, how she processes emotions and her response to stress.

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The Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com) – Dietary Changes To Gut Bacteria Can Affect Brain Functioning, Study Suggests – (Monday, June 17, 2013)

Dietary changes to the bacteria living in our guts could have an impact on brain functioning, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that regularly eating yogurt with probiotics, which contain “good” bacteria, seems to affect brain functioning in women. They said the proof-of-concept study shows it is possible to impact brain functioning by altering gut bacteria through diet.

The study, published in the journal Gastroenterology, was funded by Danone Research, which is the research arm of Danone, a company that produces yogurt and other dairy products. Some of the study researchers are Danone employees, but they had no role in the interpretation or analysis of results. Researchers noted that past studies have shown a gut-brain connection in terms of the brain sending signals to the gut. But this new study shows that the gut could also send signals to the brain.

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I have published extensively on Sickness Syndrome, a condition I identified where inflammation in the body triggers inflammation in the brain that is a cause of depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges. One of our treatment strategies for Sickness Syndrome, depression and anxiety, involves testing for, and then treating bacterial imbalance in the gut.

In health,

Dr. Gina