My first Magazine SFI Little Book - April Re-print edits included | Page 18

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Happy Gut Bugs
Your gut is naturally home to trillions of bacteria, and
their effects could be far reaching: they may even have
an impact on mood. Researchers at the Science
Foundation Ireland, APC Microbiome Institute in
University College Cork discovered that if mice lacked
gut bacteria in early life, they had altered levels in
adulthood of a chemical called serotonin in the brain.
Serotonin is thought to be involved in regulating
mood. Moreover, these mice also displayed autistic-
like behavioural traits. Separately, the researchers
also found that feeding mice with a specific strains of
probiotic gut bacteria (so called psychobiotics) meant
the animals displayed less anxious behaviour.
Less stress more...
bacteria?
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Gut bacteria can also have an effect on stress levels.
A small study of healthy men taking the probiotic,
Bifidobacterium longum 1714 or a placebo control over
a 4 week period showed a reduction in the stress
hormone cortisol and reduced anxiety.

apc.ucc.ie