Cultural Awareness: The Rise of Probiotics

The current increase in mental illness is affecting everyone on some level. Approximately 1 in 5 Canadians are affected by mental illness annually. Our 21st-century diets are of concern for many reasons but for now, we will look specifically at how our diets are not helping with our day to day management of mental illness. Our diets are the centre of attention, from increasing stringent policy, like the UK’s sugar tax, to how food is being marketed to us, “gluten-free”, “high in protein” or “natural”. It seems like every few years there is a new trendy nutrient we deem the essence of health and sorting through the clutter of nutritional information can be overwhelming.  

The human microbiome is the new area of nutrition that has created a great deal of publicity. The microbiome is the study of the human bacteria’s genetic material, analysed by investigating these microorganisms in our faecal sample. These microorganisms greatly outnumber the number of DNA cells, for every human gene there are 100 bacterial genes. I guess it is safe to say we are more bacteria than human! The dietary supplements market took full advantage of this new research and has heavily marketed probiotics. The 2012 National Health Interview Survey showed that adult probiotic use quadrupled between 2007 and 2012. 

 

What is a probiotic? Probiotics are certain strains of microorganisms (bacteria) that can have health benefits when consumed or applicated to our body.  

What is a prebiotic? Prebiotics and probiotics are commonly considered to be the same, however a prebiotic is different because it’s a catalyst for growth and activity of microorganisms in our gut.  

Increased interest in these microorganisms is warranted as research is showing possible benefits of bacteria strains on our gut-brain axis. Fascinatingly, our brain and gut communicate quite extensively. Imagine you got an A+ in your last exam, your brain will release feel-good chemicals in your brain giving you that ecstatic feeling. Imagine you just got fired or received a parking ticket, your brain will release stress chemicals giving you that anxious feeling. Serotonin, our happy and feel good chemical is produced by our brain and stomach. A whopping 90% of serotonin and 50% of dopamine (our reward chemical) is produced by our gut. The emergence of the gut-brain axis has brought about some very interesting finding, however, this research is in it’s beginning stages and researchers are just starting to move from the preclinical development stage (trials on animals) and into clinical application. Specific strains seem to be lacking in individuals suffering from disorders like depression, anxiety and bipolar disease, but little is currently known about the effect bacteria strains can have on these disorders. Shifting research from animal testing to humans is proving to be more difficult than expected.

Should probiotics be used for the betterment of well people? Potentially. While fermented foods are shown to help with symptoms of anxiety and stress in low emotionally regulated human population, little evidence is available, and no replication of these findings have occurred yet. Despite successful trials on animals, human trials have not shown the same effects. We cannot definitively conclude that probiotics help mental illness management. There are individual differences in our strains of microorganisms influenced by our location, food consumption, daily activities and multiple other variables, leaving a lot to the interpretation of the consumer. Probiotics are abundant and a quick search on Amazon gives you over 600 probiotics to choose from. Probiotics are unregulated and are not thoroughly tested as compared to the pharmaceutical industry that requires careful testing before hitting the market.  

  

Advice for choosing probiotics

1. Various strains are effective for prevention of certain symptoms, the product should give strain information and bacteria group to help determine if it is suitable for you. 
2. The product should give a colony-forming unit (CFU). This is the number of live bacteria and in most trials, the minimum live bacteria used in trials is one billion.
3. Do your research! Has it been tested on humans, on healthy people? Is the product useful for you? *Use the helpline on the product to find out the information you need.

The research is optimistic but as of now, caution is recommended. A change in diet can potentially have similar benefits proposed by the preclinical studies of probiotics. Live bacterial cultures are found in yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha and many fermented products. Implementing more fermented food in your diet is more cost-effective than buying probiotics regularly. Similarly, prebiotics are also found in food. Food high in prebiotics are usually high in fibre too, like wheat bran, banana, garlic and onions.

With the uncertainty of probiotics benefits, food is a more cost-friendly alternative, plus you can benefit from other important nutrients present in fermented foods in combination with the live bacteria needed for healthy gut bacteria culture. What we do know is that a healthy diet is protective against depression, whether through the microorganisms sustained by healthy food or through another process.   

References  

Butler, M. I., Mörkl, S., Sandhu, K. V, Cyran, J. F., & Dinan, T. G. (2019). The Gut Microbiome and Mental Health: What Should We Tell Our Patients?: Le microbiote Intestinal et la Santé Mentale : que Devrions-Nous dire à nos Patients? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie, 706743719874168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743719874168

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (2019, August 22). Probiotics: What you need to know. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://nccih.nih.gov/health/probiotics/introduction.htm.

Kilgour, L. (2015). Microbes, mental wellness and mealtime. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://lisakilgour.com/media