This may be the reason you have a less diverse gut microbiome linked to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases.
The gut microbiome, consisting of trillions of microorganisms inhabiting the digestive system, plays a crucial role in our health. Several studies have revealed that disruptions in the gut microbiome can profoundly influence the gut-brain axis, leading to a range of health issues, such as anxiety, depression, and even neurological disorders.
This bidirectional relationship suggests that the brain can influence the gut and vice versa. Our emotions and their management can potentially impact the composition of the gut microbiome, while in turn, the microbiome may also exert an influence on our emotional well-being.
The connection between the gut and the brain appears to have implications for physical well-being as well. Existing studies have demonstrated a correlation between positive emotions and effective emotional regulation with increased lifespan.
In a recent investigation conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a prominent member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, in collaboration with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a fascinating connection has been established between gut bacteria and positive emotions such as happiness and hopefulness, as well as improved skills in managing emotions.
Conversely, negative emotions have been associated with elevated rates of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality, as stated by Laura Kubzansky, Ph.D., a professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-corresponding author of the study.
The outcomes of their study have been recently published in the journal Psychological Medicine.
The recently conducted research involved over 200 women who participated in the Mind-Body Study, which is a subset of the Nurses’ Health Study II. These women, who were mostly middle-aged and of white ethnicity, completed a survey that inquired about their emotional state during the past 30 days.
They were asked to indicate whether they experienced positive emotions (such as happiness or hopefulness about the future) or negative emotions (such as sadness, fear, worry, restlessness, hopelessness, depression, or loneliness). The survey also evaluated their strategies for managing emotions.
The participants were given two choices: either reframing the situation in a more positive manner (known as cognitive reappraisal) or suppressing their negative emotions. According to Anne-Josee Guimond, Ph.D., co-first author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in Kubzansky’s lab, suppressing one’s feelings is often an ineffective approach to handling emotions and can result in poorer mental and physical health outcomes.
After a three-month interval from responding to the survey, the female participants submitted stool samples which were subjected to metagenomic sequencing for analysis. The research team then conducted a comparative study between the microbial data obtained from the analysis and the survey responses related to emotions and their coping mechanisms in order to identify potential correlations.
“Some of the species that popped up in the analysis were previously linked with poor health outcomes, including schizophrenia and cardiovascular diseases,” Guimond added. “These links between emotion regulation and the gut microbiome could affect physical health outcomes and explain how emotions influence health.”
According to the analysis, individuals who actively suppressed their emotions exhibited a less varied gut microbiome. Additionally, the study observed that individuals who reported experiencing positive emotions had reduced quantities of Firmicutes bacterium CAG 94 and Ruminococcaceae bacterium D16, while those who experienced more negative emotions had higher levels of these bacteria.
“I was intrigued that positive and negative emotions often had consistently similar findings in opposite directions,” Kubzansky remarked. “This is what you would expect, but kind of amazing to me that we saw it.”
The researchers also investigated the functional pathways of gut microbes, aiming to establish connections between changes in their activity and specific emotional states as well as methods of regulating emotions. Their findings revealed that negative emotions were associated with reduced activity in various metabolism-related actions.
However, it is important to note some limitations of this study. Firstly, the subjects primarily consisted of postmenopausal white women, which may limit the generalizability of the results. Additionally, the emotion survey was conducted at a single time point, preventing the researchers from determining the directionality of the observed link.
To address these limitations, the researchers aim to conduct further studies involving more diverse populations. They also plan to utilize a more comprehensive emotional survey and collect longitudinal data, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship. Moreover, a more detailed analysis of the microbial strains involved could potentially facilitate the development of microbiome-based therapeutics, such as probiotics, with the aim of enhancing emotional well-being.
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