Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash A protein, FKBP51, has been associated with anxiety and diabetes, as it contributes to the regulation of the stress system. Diabetes Diabetes is a life-threatening disease that causes your blood sugar and triglycerides to become continuously and severely elevated. …
Photo by Sam Owoyemi on Unsplash Depression is a disorder that affects around 6.7% of adults in the United States each year. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that more than 300 million people currently live with the disorder. This disorder is not a normal …
Rhodiola rosea is a plant that is grown at high altitudes and northern latitudes. Because of this, it is known as the “Golden Root” or “Artic Root”. It is used in traditional medicine in Eastern Europe and Asia to enhance physical and mental performance, stimulate the nervous system, and fight depression, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Because of this, researchers are now reporting the plants extract improves the symptoms of burnout.
Siegfried Kasper from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria and Angelika Dienel from Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH & Co. in Germany, set out to begin the first clinical trial aiming to explore the clinical outcomes of burnout in patients using Rhodiola rosea.
For the study, Kasper and Dienel recruited 118 men and women between the ages of 30 and 60 suffering from symptoms of burnout. Participants were asked to take 400mg per day of Rhodiola rosea extract for 12 weeks. Researchers report the majority of symptoms – fatigue, exhaustion, lack of joy, loss of zest for life, depersonalization – improved during the course of the study, while some improvements measureable as early as the first week. In addition, participants reported increased sexual interest and functioning, which supports the potential activity Rhodiola Rosea to ameliorate burnout’s impairment on sexual function.
“The results presented provide an encouraging basis for clinical trials further investigating the clinical outcomes of R. rosea extract in patients with the burnout syndrome,” concluded Kasper and Dienel.
Published in the journal Phytotherapy Research in 2015, Mark Cropley, Adrian Banks, and Julia Boyle from the University of Surrey studied the effect of Rhodiola rosea extract on mood and anxiety. Data from 81 mildly anxious studies indicated that 14 days of the extract significantly reduced self-reported anxiety and stress. Participants were either given two 200mg doses per day of the Rhodiola rosea extract or no treatment.
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults ages 18 and older, about 18% of the population. The Study Published in the journal Brain and Behavior, a …
Your thyroid is one of the smallest glands in your body, yet it is actually one of the most important. This gland is instrumental in the healthy regulation of functions like proper metabolism, energy levels, burning calories, the creation of body proteins and the reaction …
Healthy gut microbiota and bacteria helps digest food, fight infection, and plays an important role in keeping the immune system healthy. It is influenced by genetics, but more so by diet, stress and other environmental factors. Numerous studies have investigated the claim that intestinal bacteria can affect behavior. However, a new study has made a discovery regarding the link between intestinal bacteria and depression.
Published in Nature Communications, the study explores the role of intestinal microbiota in the altered behavior brought on by early-life stress. Premysl Bercik, senior author of Nature Communications and associate professor of medicine at McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine explains, “We have shown for the first time in an established mouse model of anxiety and depression that bacteria plays a crucial role in inducing this abnormal behavior. But it’s not only bacteria, it’s the altered bi-directional communication between the stressed hosts [in this case mice subjected to early-life stress] and its microbiota that leads to anxiety and depression, which is leading many to look to professionals on how they can reduce these conditions.”
First, researchers subjected the mice to early-life stress using maternal separation during an 18 day period. Newborn mice were separated from their mothers for three hours a day to induce stress, then rejoined them. Bercik and his team then confirmed that mice containing complex microbiota (that had been maternally separated) displayed “anxiety and depression-like behavior with abnormal levels of the stress hormone corticosterone.” The test was repeated in germ-free conditions and found there was an absence of bacteria in the mice that were maternally separated but showed no sign of anxiety or depression. Mice that has been separated in germ-free environments, were exposed to bacteria and within several weeks, tests shows the bacterial composition and metabolic activity had changed. The mice then started exhibiting symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Bercik says that with this new research, “We are starting to explain the complex mechanisms of interaction and dynamics between gut microbiota and its host. Our data shows that relatively minor changes in microbiota profiles or its metabolic activity induced by neonatal stress can have profound effects on host behavior in adulthood.” The next step, Bercik says, is conducting this experiment on humans.
This research suggests that keeping your intestinal bacteria healthy could help if you struggle with mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Of course, until it has been tested on humans, we cannot say for certain.
Levels of probiotics tend to decrease with age and are lowered by other factors including poor diet and obesity. As the level of probiotics decrease, problematic bacteria in the gut generally thrive and increase. According to Archana Gogna, MS, CNS, MBA, healthy bacteria have been studied in numerous clinical trials and have been shown to –
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/