What is the relationship between depression and gut health?

Russian nutritionist Dr. Elena Levantsova announced that the right choice of foods can help get rid of depression because a person’s psychological state is linked to gut health.

The expert points out that, according to World Health Organization statistics, more than 260 million people in the world suffer from depression, while 30-40 percent of them do not feel the effect of taking medications. Therefore, scientists are actively searching for unclear causes of this disease and new ways to treat it, and it has become known that psychological disorders can arise due to problems in intestinal bacteria.

“There is a connection between the brain and the gut at the nervous system level,” she says. “In addition to having its own enteric nervous system, the gastrointestinal tract interacts with the central nervous system through the vagus nerve. If we imagine it metaphorically, it travels a long way from the central nervous system through different organs of the chest, lungs, heart and down to the gut, it is like a ‘cable car’ that provides information in both directions. If the gut is tired, it means the nervous system is tired too.”

The expert points out that the gut microbiome is "responsible" for producing the hormone that affects mood.

“90 percent of serotonin is produced by the gut. It is one of the happiness hormones. When certain disturbances occur in the gut microbiome, serotonin production is interrupted, and thus insufficient signals are sent to the brain and depression appears,” she says.

According to the doctor, another cause of psychological disorders is a lack of vitamins that ensure the normal functioning of the nervous system.

“The gut microbiome is actually a factory that produces what the body needs for the normal functioning of all systems, but its function can be disrupted by a deficiency of vitamins B (B9, B12), which are essential and important for mental health. That is why doctors often prescribe additional doses of them. On the other hand, a deficiency of vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, selenium and iron imbalance in the body can cause a disruption in the functioning of the microbiome,” she says.

The expert recommends eating at least 400 grams of fruits and vegetables per day.

“A large study conducted several years ago, which included 300,000 people suffering from depression, showed that the Mediterranean diet increases the effectiveness of medications by 40-45 percent. The researchers concluded that for every 100 grams of vegetables and fruits that a person eats per day, the risk of depression is reduced by 5 percent. In addition, work is currently underway to create so-called psychobiotics, which are different strains of bacteria with antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects that may, in time, become an alternative to drug treatment,” she says.