How what you eat can impact your brain health

A new study describes that what we eat are responsible for our gut bacteria which has a significant impact on behavior and brain health.

The new study describes many ways gut bacteria could impact normal brain activity and development, affect sleep and stress responses, play a role in a variety of diseases, and be modified through diet for therapeutic use.

In "The Gut Microbiome and the Brain", Leo Galland, Foundation for Integrated Medicine (New York, NY), presents the most up-to-date understanding of the relationship between the proteins produced by intestinal bacteria and the human central nervous system. The author explores the various mechanisms through which the microbiome can influence the brain: by stimulating and over-stimulating the immune system, producing neurotoxic agents, releasing hormones or neurotransmitters identical to those made by the human body, or through direct neuronal stimulation that sends signals to the brain.

Co-editor-in-chief Sampath Parthasarathy added that the microbiome had become a hot topic in many branches of medicine, from immune and inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn's and IBD to cardiovascular diseases. Scientists were not only aware of the 'good' and the 'bad' microbes in the gut but were becoming increasingly aware of how they could alter the metabolism beyond gut.

The study is published in the Journal of Medicinal Food.