Eating probiotic foods can ease anxiety and depression: study

Do you love eating kimchi? Or is yogurt your go-to dessert? A recent study showed that eating probiotic foods not only improves your gut health but can also ease your anxiety and depression. 

A recently published study by researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School and Singapore’s National Neuroscience Institute revealed that tests on mice showed a “crucial connection between gut microbes and anxiety-related behavior,” per the South China Morning Post report. 

They suggest that the molecules called indoles—produced by the gut microbes involved in the process of metabolism—help regulate anxiety. 

“These changes can be restored by conventionalization or dietary supplementation with indole, a gut microbe-derived metabolite. This suggests a potential alternative treatment option to reduce anxiety levels in individuals with anxiety-related disorders,” the study read. 

Probiotics are live bacteria that help improve gut health as they add beneficial microbes to treat or prevent dysbiosis—an imbalance or a deficit of beneficial microbes in your microbiome, per the Cleveland Clinic. 

Some foods that contain probiotics are kimchi, yogurt, miso, pickled cucumbers, and more. 

“In our study, dietary indole supplementation was shown to reduce anxiety-related behavior in a mouse model lacking gut microbiota,” H. Shawn Le, the co-lead author of the study, told Medical News Today.  

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 4% of people across the globe live with an anxiety disorder, noting that while there are “highly effective treatments” available, only about one in four people in need receive any treatment.

“This finding is significant because it suggests that indoles may help calm the brain’s anxiety response, offering a potential new treatment for anxiety,” Le told the health outlet, adding that the findings could pave for new therapies target “the gut-brain axis.”