Improving Gut Health Improves Mood

This blog isn't really about the body, at least not directly. But over the past few years more and more articles have emerged indicating that not only do we have that - by now - famous second brain in our intestine (see my 2006 article: Introducing Our Second & Third Brains: We Do Think With Our Heart & Instinct) due to the millions of neural cells found there, but it appears that the physical state of health of that part of our body - the gut - influences our mood.

Ho-hum. So this is about food.

Yes and no. More than about food - healthy food, processed food, or junk food, it's about understanding what you are doing to your state of inner well-being; i.e., your happiness and joy, if you are not aware of how the health of your intestine has great influence over mood. So it's not about the fact that you feel happier when you have some sugary or carb-laden food than if you eat broccoli, but that it is potentially a given that your gut is creating a mood due to its - let's call it - lack of balance. So it's possible that even if you were to switch to a much healthier way of eating, as long as you don't take care of also tweaking the gut, the mood may not improve as much as you'd like it to.

And the tweaking has much to do with certain ingredients you give your gut in order that it may restore its natural microbial balance in order that your mood is as good as it can be. As you will see in the following articles, probiotics (good ones - don't worry, I sell none, nor am I affiliated with anyone who does), or good fermented foods that you can easily make yourself at home, are key to this issue.

Have a look:

• It's all in Your Gut: How to Enhance Mood, Immunity and More Through Digestion (Huff Post)

"Your gastrointestinal system is the most abundant source of regulatory neurotransmitters and neuro-peptides outside the brain. An example of this is the fact that serotonin, one of the brain's chemicals that influences mood, actually has its highest concentrations in the gut." 

• Gut Bacteria May Exacerbate Depression (Scientific American)

"The digestive tract and the brain are crucially linked, according to mounting evidence showing that diet and gut bacteria are able to influence our behavior, thoughts and mood. Now researchers have found evidence of bacterial translocation, or “leaky gut,” among people with depression."

• That Gut Feeling (APA - American Psychological Association)

"With a sophisticated neural network transmitting messages from trillions of bacteria, the brain in your gut exerts a powerful influence over the one in your head, new research suggests."

"Research has found, for example, that tweaking the balance between beneficial and disease-causing bacteria in an animal's gut can alter its brain chemistry and lead it to become either more bold or more anxious."

• Gut Bacteria Might Guide the Workings of Our Mind (NPR - National Public Radio)

"Do the trillions of microbes that live in our bodies help mold our brains as we're growing up? Do they continue to influence our moods, behavior and feelings when we're adults?" 

"The brain connections of people whose microbes are dominated by one species of bacteria look different than those of people whose microbes are dominated by another species. That suggests that the specific mix of microbes in our guts helps determine what kinds of brains we have, how our brain circuits develop, how they're wired."

"It's the first time that it's been demonstrated in a controlled study that if you alter the gut microorganisms or microbes, that this affects the brain in a fairly profound fashion in healthy people."

• Are Probiotics the New Prozac? (Mercola Newsletter)

"The secret to improving your mental health is in your gut, as unhealthy gut flora can have a detrimental impact on your brain health leading to issues like anxiety and depression."

• Fermenting Foods (How-to)

Also visit my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may download excerpts or read quotations from any of my books.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:

 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquent and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 

From the Introduction: It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is The Tao of Spiritual Partnership, so named for another one of my books. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.