make you sick) that are kept under control by the
community at large.
THE POTENT POWER OF PROBIOTICS
Ready for a paradigm shift? Some very interesting studies
have emerged recently highlighting the value that
probiotics–foods or supplements rich in live bacteria–may
hold for those of us suffering from depression, anxiety, and
even dementia.
In a small study from Holland’s Leiden Institute for
Brain and Cognition, women who took a probiotic
supplement designed to enhance gut bacterial diversity
experienced less reactivity to sad thoughts than those who
took a placebo. Resilience to sad thoughts is a sign of strong
mental health. For example, in depressed people, a sad
stimulus can turn an otherwise spotless sky into an overcast
day, whereas someone with a healthy mood can simply
observe the sad thought and move on, without significant
cloud formation.
Can consuming more fermented foods, like kombucha,
yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi help our anxiety? Maybe,
according to another study that found that students who
consumed more of these types of foods had less social
anxiety. The effect was especially strong in those who had
neurotic personalities. “It is likely that the probiotics in the
fermented foods are favorably changing the environment in
the gut, and changes in the gut in turn influence social
anxiety,” wrote one of the authors in the College of William