Gut & Mood
The gut and brain are so interconnected, that treating one will often positively affect the other
For people wanting to
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Improve gut and mental health
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Better understand the drivers of their gut and mood issues
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Better control their health by being an active participant
Treatment foundation
A comprehensive history of your case will highlight things that may be causing and/or contributing to gut and/or mood issues. The foundation of treatment is creating internal and external environments that help health flourish. This is done by correcting nutritional deficiencies; supporting function with herbal and nutritional supplements; suitable diet and lifestyle changes; and additional testing if necessary.
What is your role?
You recognise you are instrumental to your own healing. You are willing to give it a go but need a few pointers in the right direction.
Recommended timeline
If you have had gut and/or mood issues for more than 6 months, be patient and allow time for healing to occur. The longer the illness the slower the progress. Implementing a 6-month treatment plan will give you time to make diet and lifestyle changes. A full treatment plan has any number of moving parts and cannot be actualised in one session but needs to be broken down into bite-size pieces. Otherwise, you might be at risk of becoming overwhelmed and losing all motivation! If you are ready to start the process of getting better, book your initial appointment and take it one step at a time.
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I'm following my gut on this one. Or gut instincts. Or gut reaction. The guts of it ... we have a lot of gut sayings. We’ve all felt it at some point in our lives. That strong emotion. In the pit of our stomach. We know intuitively the gut and brain are linked. A long time ago someone said, perhaps Hippocrates, that all disease begins in the gut. Maybe he was right.
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The gut and brain (and immune system) are intimate friends. The most recent research on gut microbes has reinforced this. And opened up the possibility of targeting the gut as a treatment for psychiatric and neurological disorders. Such as depression, anxiety, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and autism spectrum disorder.
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The gut, brain, and immune system are constantly talking to each other, directly and indirectly. The mesh of nerve fibres in the gut (enteric nervous system) is so important that it's nicknamed, 'the second brain'. And the volume of nerve fibres in the gut is equal to the rest of the nerve fibres put together. This is no accident. Your gut and skin are the first lines of defence against the bad stuff in your air, food, and water. But they also have to simultaneously let the good stuff through. A demanding task, considering the gut wall is only 1 cell thick. This is why most of your immune system stands guard in the inner layer of your gut and constantly sends messages to the brain.
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Like the gut, the brain has its own protective barrier called the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The integrity of both is regulated by healthy gut microbes. Each is susceptible to degradation by the overgrowth of unhealthy gut microbes, poor nutrition, stress, and immune-triggered inflammatory byproducts. And once the barriers are more porous or permeable, they can let stuff through that shouldn't be let through. One way good gut microbes protect the barriers is by producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs); made when we eat fibre. SCFAs also act directly on the brain by regulating neuroplasticity, gene expression, and the immune system. Affecting cognition, emotions, behaviour, neuroinflammation, and mental disorders. The absence of good gut microbes producing SCFAs can promote inflammation and disease states.
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All this illustrates that the gut-brain axis takes cues from the internal (gut microbes, SCFAs, immune, nutrients) and external (diet, stress) environment. Supporting the right internal and external environment can promote healthy gut-brain cross-talk. And healthy cross-talk promotes healthy brain and gut function.
