You've Heard Of Probiotics, But What Are Psychobiotics? Scientists Explain.
With our days becoming more and more demanding, carving out micro-moments of self-care can be challenging. Here's a friendly reminder to hit pause, take a step back, and recenter yourself. When it comes to supporting your brain health, proper nutrition is key. On this blog, we’ll dive into all the healthy foods and supplements that can help you manage stress, support cognitive health, and supercharge emotional resilience.
In terms of supplements, one particular player made us raise a brow: not probiotics, but psychobiotics. If you just did a double-take, you're not alone—below, Kaplan and Rucklidge break it down.
For those familiar with probiotics, psychobiotics follow a similar beat. "You're taking those good bacteria, the bacteria that we know are healthy for our gut, but putting them in a pill or powder form rather than ingesting them through your whole foods," says Rucklidge. What makes them "psychobiotics" rather than regular ol' probiotics is the fact that these bacteria have been specifically studied for their brain health benefits. "That's where the psycho part comes in," Rucklidge explains, a term coined by Scott Anderson, John Cryan, PhD, and Ted Dinan, M.D., PhD, in their book, The Psychobiotic
Revolution Perhaps you know a thing or two about the gut-brain connection Because of this relationship, scientists have started to isolate particular bacterial strains they believe are specifically beneficial for the gut-brain axis.
The thing is, the science is still pretty new: So we can't say for sure which specific strains benefit brain health. You have trillions of bacteria in your gut, after all, so it would take an extensive amount of time to isolate each and everyone and assess their benefits for the brain.
"Everybody has their favourite bacteria, and so every investigator does their own favourite couple of bacterial strains and then looks to see whether or not it helps [e.g., with mood]. In some cases it does; in some cases, it doesn't," Rucklidge explains.
The takeaway
Psychobiotics (or probiotics that benefit the brain) are an exciting discovery in the brain health space—but we need way more research before we can identify specific strains. Until we have a clearer answer, both Rucklidge and Kaplan suggest getting your fill of pre-and probiotic-rich foods. "If you're eating a whole foods diet, you are providing the prebiotics for the good gut bacteria to thrive," Kaplan says. "So if you're feeding yourself whole foods with fibre, you might do a better job than if you are [cherry-picking] different probiotics."
Citation:
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-are-psychobiotics
Comments
Post a Comment