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Category: Brain disorders
Bringing Depression Out of the Shadows
Depression isn’t all in your head—and it isn’t your fault. Someone can sit next to you at lunch and talk freely about their gout or their backache. In fact, we often can’t get people to shut up about their gout or their backache. But people with depression are often treated differently. There’s an unspoken stigma attached to issues…
Flavonoids Keep Your Brain Young
The gut-brain connection is a story that just keeps giving. The idea that gut microbes could affect your mood and cognition is startling and potentially very useful. The microbes that improve your mood are called psychobiotics. Microbes eat prebiotics, which include complex sugars like fiber. Recent studies show that substances called flavonoids are also prebiotic, and seem to…
New Hope for Parkinson’s Patients
Tantalizing new studies point to a potential treatment. Parkinson’s is a remorseless, incurable disease that causes stiffness, tremors, difficulty walking, and depression. People suffering from the disease have a loss of nerve cells (neurons) in an area of the mid-brain called the substantia nigra. Latin names always sound impressive, but this one just means “black stuff.”…
Unending Fear and the Gut-Brain Axis
A mouse study finds a remarkable microbial connection to fear. A new study in Nature finds that gut microbes are essential for extinguishing the fear response in mice. This may help clinicians devise strategies for people with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study is the latest in a continuing exploration of the mechanics of the gut-brain axis. We’ve come a long…
Problems Sleeping? Look to Your Gut
How the bacteria in your gut manipulate your sleep patterns. Your gut is linked to your brain in surprising ways, and you may be losing sleep over it. Research into the gut-brain axis reveals that, amazingly, microbes in your gut can affect your mood—and along with that, your sleep patterns. Sleep disorders and depression are common among…