Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: chris on 11/04/2017 08:06:10

Title: How robust is the evidence for the effect of the microbiome on the brain?
Post by: chris on 11/04/2017 08:06:10

Kamil wrote to me with this interesting question:

Hello Naked Scientists,

My question is if all these loud headlines i.e. "Guts make decisions for us", "Is your Guts your second Brain?, "Your emotions come from Guts", etc. is there any strong scientific evidence for proving that true or is this just another hype as we have already seen with Yoga curing cancer, meditation curing all mental health problems, and gluten being a key to all diseases?

Most of these Gut-Brain studies come from mice and even then there is a plenty room for interpretation and statistics hacking.

Can you explain something more, maybe I'm mistaken and I refuse to accept the newest frontier of medical health.

Kind regards,
Long, long time listener (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts) Kamil, from Poland

What does everyone think?

Title: Re: How robust is the evidence for the effect of the microbiome on the brain?
Post by: MayoFlyFarmer on 11/04/2017 15:13:06

I guess I'd want to see exactly what claims she is referring to (and what studies those claims came from) to really be able to comment.  Lots of great new information coming out in recent years as to the importance of the microbiome as it relates to SO many aspects of our physiology, but I can't say I've seen anyone claim that our gut bacteria "thinks" for us.  I guess that would give a new meaning to the phrase "go with what your gut tells you".

Title: Re: How robust is the evidence for the effect of the microbiome on the brain?
Post by: evan_au on 11/04/2017 22:22:02

I have heard of studies that show that your microbiome affects how much you eat, and what kinds of food you eat.
But it is a bit hard to untangle cause and effect, because your diet also affects your microbiome.