Power Of The Gut
- Tashy Thinks
- Mar 26, 2020
- 5 min read
Diet and mental health.
So closely related and yet so often overlooked by doctors who are very quick to put us on antidepressants. Don’t get me wrong antidepressants in many cases are needed and change peoples lives, my only concern is that it seems they are as easy to get as the Pill (another social change that shouldn’t be overlooked if you are suffering from depression or anxiety).
The long term effects that come with these medications are still unknown and they don’t come without their side effects. Too often antidepressants are the first line of treatment. Playing with our hormones may be necessary☝, I only wish it was done with more care and research. I have had my fair share of doctors and treatments, with a stretched and overbooked system the medical “profession” are too often looking for a quick diagnosis and dismissal.
I was once prescribed Amitriptyline. My doctor was a lovely man just trying to offer me some relief as my referral to the hospital was going to take months and I was in a lot of pain physically and mentally. I had had no tests done, I had not yet had a formal diagnosis as to what was wrong with my gut. If I had they would have realised this particular medication not only wouldn’t have helped my gut condition but worsened it.
💊Their current system for prescribing medication is a gambling game, one with our health at stake. We take the risk, the doctors the betters in whom we blindly trust.💊
Depression can be diagnosed within one session with a GP, on the other hand gluten intolerance/sensitivity takes an average of 13 years to diagnose.
Why does this relate? Well the symptoms of Non-Coeliac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) are not always physical and it won’t necessarily show up on a blood test; It can cause brain fog, depression, fatigue and other mood related issues. (Gluten being in bread, pasta anything with wheat, so basically something we probably eat everyday)
In other words they treat the symptom not the cause. Long term knowing you have a wheat sensitivity and having a gluten free diet more helpful than an antidepressant.
The same can apply to many other intolerances (lactose, IBS, fructose) or nutritional deficiencies. With little time and money a home cooked meal is not a regular occurrence in most households and our new version of a family dinner comes in the form of Papa Johns and Uncle Ben. We might call ourselves the human race but we cannot live off fast food or unbalanced diets.
It’s like putting diesel in a petrol car…🚗
In a recent study, a group of Africans who ate a traditional African diet high in beans and vegetables swapped with a group of African Americans who lived off a Western diet.
In only two weeks the group of Africans now on the western diet had a metabolism decrease to that of a diabetic and their overall health declined greatly. The African Americans who switched to a majority plant based diet were now at a lower risk of colon cancer. Their gut bacteria related to this decrease in cancer risk as on the African diet they now produced more butyrate which has antibacterial properties, whereas the western diet produced more bile acids, which may increase cancer risk.
It isn’t rocket science really that the typical western diet being high in fat, sugar, meat and low in fibre, fruit and veg is bad for us. However it is doing greater internal and long term damage than simply expanding our waistlines. An out of balance mind or body can often be a reflection of an out of balance diet.
Say Hello to your Second Brain…🧠
The gut is called the second brain for a reason, similar to our brain it has a enteric system which consists of hundreds of neurons (the same amount found in a cat’s brain). These connect to the brain via the vagus nerve and send messages through it. Our biome converts some of the food we can’t digest into hormones (and we all know how influential they can be on our well being, my dad living with three girls better than anyone).
“You are what you eat” really is quite true.
Our Microbiome has the power to:
Change our taste receptors
Affect our mental health (depression, anxiety, even Alzheimer’s etc)
For example… New research has discovered that those with depression are missing certain types of gut bacteria. Specifically Coprococcus the bacteria involved in the production for dopamine and helps decrease inflammation of the body (by producing byutane), inflammation being another cause of depression. There is some sense behind the saying “gut feeling”.
Determine on some level how much weight you put on (as it influences how much energy you extract from the food you consume)
Control how our blood sugar reacts to certain foods (knock on effect on our mood and our likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes)
Influence the food choices we make (by producing chemicals similar to the main hunger hormones (leptin, PYY). It’s true some people will naturally be more hungry than others, the more you feed this bacteria (especially sugar) the more this type of bacteria grows and overpopulates your gut)
Affect our toilet habits – i.e. give us constipation or diarrhoea 💩 (yep, no airs and graces hear we all know a sluggish or overly active digestion doesn’t exactly makes us feel our brightest of selves). Fixing your gut bacteria is a good start to helping you recover from IBS (or at least improve your symptoms!)
Affect our immune system and create allergies 🤧
WHAT affects my gut bacteria?
Well the two you can’t control…
Your mothers microbiota
The environment you are exposed to at birth
The two you can control and ones I will be focusing on in this new section of the blog:
Your lifestyle
(Stress, antibiotics (kill all gut bacteria the good and bad), how much alcohol you drink, exercise, smoking, sleep etc)
Diet
(different foods feed the different bacteria in our gut, some good some not so good)
KEY WORDS
Microbiome – the bacteria (good and bad), fungi, parasites, viruses that make up our insides.
Gut flora – same as gut microbiome (another word for it)
My takeaway message from this is this:
If your moods aren’t right, you get overly anxious, irritated, depressed, lack energy, bloating, headaches, constant hunger, no hunger, can’t sleep, over sleep or have a dodgy digestion it’s worth re-evaluating what you are putting in your body. (*especially if you have been on antibiotics)
Do some research on your diet.
Disclaimer: I am not qualified in this area, this is simply a fraction of what I have learnt from my reading on the subject in the attempt to tackle my health (+ my families – to their delight) both mental and physical, from every angle. I want to help other people do the same.
There are many other factors that we are STILL discovering in regards to the power of gut bacteria. However I wanted to give a brief and hopefully simplified introduction to this topic.
In my next post on “The Power of the Gut” I am going to go more in depth into mental health and gut bacteria and things you can do to help your gut flora flourish.
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Thank you for getting this far! 😂
Tasha and Mino x ✨
Books I recommend:
“The Clever Guts Diet” – Dr Michael Mosley
“GUT” – Giulia Enders
“The Healthy Life” – J.S Health
“Eat Pretty” – Jolene Hart
“How to Eat Better” – James Wong
IG accounts:
@agutsygirl – good for low fodmap ideas and IBS sufferers
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