Probiotics in diet can help ease anxiety, research suggests
Adding probiotic yoghurt to a person's diet could help improve the symptoms of anxiety and depression.That is according to researchers at University College, Cork, who found that probiotics have the power to change the chemistry of the brain and in an experiment in rats helped to reduced stress and anxiety.
Professor John Cryan of University College, Cork, said: "By affecting gut bacteria, you can have a very robust and quite broad-spectrum effects on brain chemistry and behaviour."
He suggested that in the future, patients may be able to take probiotic yoghurt in place of an antidepressant.
The research, he said, suggested that bacteria plays an important role in connecting the gut and the brain.
In 2009, researchers at the University College, Cork, suggested that probiotics were as effective as antibiotics at treating various infections in mice.
Dr Colin Hill, lead scientist on the project, said that one probiotic was capable of producing a peptide that kills the bacteria responsible for listeria.
