Probiotics help in keeping your gut healthy, but did you know that they are effective in fighting depression as well?
A probiotic-enriched diet can help you fight depression
HIGHLIGHTS
- Having a diet rich in probiotics helps in keeping your gut healthy
- It is possible to think of depressed people benefiting from probiotics
- Cheddar and mozzarella cheese are rich in probiotics
Having a diet rich in probiotics helps in keeping your gut healthy at all times. But probiotics, or good and helpful bacteria, do more than just keeping your gut strong. They help in fighting depression! This was discovered through a mice study. Living bacteria and yeasts, the probiotics, are beneficial for your health, especially the digestive system of your body. Results showed that rats living only on a fatty diet developed a depression-like behavior. However, rats who were given the probiotic-rich water continued to have a neutral behavior.
However, rats who did not receive probiotics showed an increased number of WBCs in their brain which could signal chronic inflammation and could be seen in fatty tissues and livers of diabetics and obese people. However, lower levels of these cells were seen in the brain of rats who received the probiotic-enriched water.
"This may indicate that one of the things the probiotics do is work to reprogramme the immune system. In this study, the rats offset the consequences of the fatty diet with the help of probiotics, so that they were on par with their peers in the control group," Anders Abildgaard, researcher at the Aarhus University in Denmark.
"This is a fascinating discovery that supports the conclusion that probiotics, which primarily work in the intestines, also affect the brain. That makes the result interesting for the treatment of depression," Abildgaard added.
The study published in the Brain, Behavior, and Immunity journal, was where the rats were divided in two groups where one group was fed a high-fat and fibrous diet and the other was given probiotic water.
12 weeks later, researchers observed that rats that were given the fatty foods with no probiotics showed signs of depression when given a swimming test. Though it is difficult to judge if it will have the same impact on humans or not, it is possible to think of depressed people benefitting from probiotic consumption, Abildgaard said.
Top 10 probiotic foods you must have:
1. Yogurt2. Kefer
3. Tempeh
4. Kimchi
5. Miso
6. Kombucha
7. Pickles
8. Buttermilk
9. Cheddar and mozzarella cheese
10. Natto
With inputs from IANS
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