19-02-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Why eating more miso, kimchi and other probiotics could ease your anxiety and depression
Germs in the gut can cause anxiety and other mental health troubles, according to Singapore-based scientists, whose findings suggest that probiotics could be a solution.
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Tests on mice showed a 'crucial connection between gut microbes and anxiety-related behaviour', according to researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School and Singapore's National Neuroscience Institute.
Published this month in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, the team's findings suggest that molecules involved in metabolism – the breakdown of food, drugs or chemicals to fuel the body – called indoles, which are produced by gut microbes, 'play a direct role in regulating brain activity linked to
anxiety '.
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that have beneficial effects on your body. These species already live in your body, along with many others. Having more probiotic foods or supplements adds to the existing supply of friendly microbes and may restore the natural balance of bacteria in your gut when it's been disrupted by illness or treatment.
Kefir is a fermented milk packed with powerful probiotics. Photo: Shutterstock
