Can probiotics help for anxiety?
To answer this, we need to understand 3 things.
- what causes anxiety? I don’t mean worrying about an exam or something that will happen in the future. I mean the chemistry behind anxiety
- how probiotics work
- the link between the GIT (Gastrointestinal Tract, gut) and the brain.
Once we know how these work individually and the way they interact with each other we will see that probiotics really do cure your anxiety.
I try not to make these articles too technical. If you find that they are then this is the bottom line.
- Probiotics help treat anxiety
- You should take a decent probiotic daily, hint Noster ProBiotics
- You should take a probiotic forever
I do and so does my entire family from my 86 year old gran down. Click 
to get yours delivered.
What Causes Anxiety?
Anxiety is your body’s natural response to stress. It is fear and apprehension of what is about to happen. This can be so bad that it paralysis the sufferer.
The “Chemical Imbalance” Theory
This is the theory we are going to explore. It fits quite well with the modern medicine outlook of fixing the symptoms. We are complex creatures influenced by our environment, ie our home life, the lesson on coping we did or didn’t learn from our parents.
But for now, we are going to consider ourselves as several chemical reactions.
Neurotransmitters are the main players in the body’s chemical reactions. Their function is to carry the nerve impulse between the separate nerves.
Serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are believed to be linked to mood and anxiety disorders. Low levels of these are the cause of anxiety.
- Serotonin is the “feel-good hormone”, is associated with mood, sleep, appetite, and other regulatory functions.
- dopamine regulates energy levels, attention, rewards, and movement
- norepinephrine is involved in the fight-or-flight response, or how a person reacts to stress
- gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) balances excitement or agitation and feelings of calm and relaxation.
Together, if these are high we are calm and relaxed no matter what the situation.
Then there is cortisol, the stress hormone and high levels mean increased stress so we need to keep it low.
So we know that we have to keep these neurotransmitters levels up so where are they made?
The Chemical Factory
Apart from breaking down food and absorbing the nutrients, our GIT is a massive chemical factory. In the dim past of my youth, the GIT was considered a place where enzymes were secreted to breakdown the food. Today we know that it is far more than that. The “enzymes” are often probiotics that break down the food, assist with the absorption and creation of many vitamins, such as vitamin k.
The GIT/Gut is far more than a place to absorb food. One of its functions, with the help of probiotics, is a massive chemical factory creating the essential chemicals our bodies need to function, including the neurotransmitters.
The Second Brain
The gut houses our second brain, known as the enteric nervous system (ENS). The ENS is part of the PNS, (peripheral nervous system) as opposed to the CNS (central nervous system or the brain and spinal cord).
This second brain has around 100 million cells and is connected to the CNS via the Vagus Nerve.
It was thought that anxiety caused irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other bowel problems such as constipation, diarrhoea, bloating, pain and stomach upset. But according to Jay Pasricha, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Neurogastroenterology, “For decades, researchers and doctors thought that anxiety and depression contributed to these problems. But our studies and others show that it may also be the other way around,”.
The Biotic Imbalance Theory
This is my term and is my take on the anxiety problem. It builds on the chemical imbalance theory.
What causes the chemical imbalance?
A probiotic imbalance, too few of the good bacteria and/or the wrong bacteria in the gut.
Balance the biotics and we will balance the chemicals and reduce the anxiety.
Conclusion
We need to have a healthy gut bacterial population or microbiome.
We need to ensure we have the correct probiotics in our gut and we need to understand that our modern life does not allow the majority of us to get the probiotics we need from our environment. Excessive cleanliness along with things like COVID-19 are destroying our natural probiotics.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need to supplement with Noster ProBiotics, but unfortunately, our world is now far from ideal.
Take a Noster ProBiotic daily for a healthier and happier life. I do and so does my entire family from my 86 year old gran down.
Click to get yours delivered.