Changing gut bacteria through diet affects brain function, UCLA study shows. UCLA researchers now have the first evidence that bacteria ingested in food can affect brain function in humans. In an early proof- of- concept study of healthy women, they found that women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria known as probiotics through yogurt showed altered brain function, both while in a resting state and in response to an emotion- recognition task. The discovery that changing the bacterial environment, or microbiota, in the gut can affect the brain carries significant implications for future research that could point the way toward dietary or drug interventions to improve brain function, the researchers said. Kirsten Tillisch, an associate professor of medicine in the digestive diseases division at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and lead author of the study. When we consider the implications of this work, the old sayings 'you are what you eat' and 'gut feelings' take on new meaning. This study shows what has been suspected but until now had been proved only in animal studies: that signals travel the opposite way as well. Researchers divided the women into three groups: one group ate a specific yogurt containing a mix of several probiotics — bacteria thought to have a positive effect on the intestines — twice a day for four weeks; another group consumed a dairy product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics; and a third group ate no product at all. ![]() ![]() ![]() Functional magnetic resonance imaging (f. MRI) scans conducted both before and after the four- week study period looked at the women's brains in a state of rest and in response to an emotion- recognition task in which they viewed a series of pictures of people with angry or frightened faces and matched them to other faces showing the same emotions. This task, designed to measure the engagement of affective and cognitive brain regions in response to a visual stimulus, was chosen because previous research in animals had linked changes in gut flora to changes in affective behaviors. The researchers found that, compared with the women who didn't consume the probiotic yogurt, those who did showed a decrease in activity in both the insula — which processes and integrates internal body sensations, like those from the gut — and the somatosensory cortex during the emotional reactivity task. Further, in response to the task, these women had a decrease in the engagement of a widespread network in the brain that includes emotion- , cognition- and sensory- related areas. The women in the other two groups showed a stable or increased activity in this network. ![]() ![]() During the resting brain scan, the women consuming probiotics showed greater connectivity between a key brainstem region known as the periaqueductal grey and cognition- associated areas of the prefrontal cortex. The women who ate no product at all, on the other hand, showed greater connectivity of the periaqueductal grey to emotion- and sensation- related regions, while the group consuming the non- probiotic dairy product showed results in between. The researchers were surprised to find that the brain effects could be seen in many areas, including those involved in sensory processing and not merely those associated with emotion, Tillisch said. The knowledge that signals are sent from the intestine to the brain and that they can be modulated by a dietary change is likely to lead to an expansion of research aimed at finding new strategies to prevent or treat digestive, mental and neurological disorders, said Dr. Emeran Mayer, a professor of medicine (digestive diseases), physiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study's senior author. They also plan to study whether people with gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain and altered bowel movements have improvements in their digestive symptoms which correlate with changes in brain response. Meanwhile, Mayer notes that other researchers are studying the potential benefits of certain probiotics in yogurts on mood symptoms such as anxiety. He said that other nutritional strategies may also be found to be beneficial. By demonstrating the brain effects of probiotics, the study also raises the question of whether repeated courses of antibiotics can affect the brain, as some have speculated. Antibiotics are used extensively in neonatal intensive care units and in childhood respiratory tract infections, and such suppression of the normal microbiota may have long- term consequences on brain development. Finally, as the complexity of the gut flora and its effect on the brain is better understood, researchers may find ways to manipulate the intestinal contents to treat chronic pain conditions or other brain related diseases, including, potentially, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and autism. Answers will be easier to come by in the near future as the declining cost of profiling a person's microbiota renders such tests more routine, Mayer said. The study was funded by Danone Research. Mayer has served on the company's scientific advisory board. Three of the study authors (Denis Guyonnet, Sophie Legrain- Raspaud and Beatrice Trotin) are employed by Danone Research and were involved in the planning and execution of the study (providing the products) but had no role in the analysis or interpretation of the results. ![]() These healthy bacteria help promote a healthy gut. Your digestive. What's tasty, easy, and has lots of health benefits? Make your own healthy GERD Diet. Scientific information on making a diet for GERD and choosing foods to avoid acid reflux. Read about symptoms of acid reflux. An Irish study that examined the relationship between dairy intake and bone density found that senior citizens who ate the most yogurt had denser hip bones than those. Greek yogurt is prepared from the same ingredients as regular yogurt but has a thicker, creamier consistency because the majority of its whey is strained out during. Probiotics are found in foods such as yogurt, while prebiotics are found in whole grains, bananas, onions, garlic, honey and artichokes. In addition, probiotics and. ![]() ![]() Science + Technology Changing gut bacteria through diet affects brain function, UCLA study shows Rachel Champeau
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