This isn’t specifically about depression or anxiety, but considering we’ve just learned that food allergies raise your risk for mental illness, it has huge implications for depression/anxiety/OCD etc.,
Basically, researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital looked at a boatload of infants with and without food allergies.
After studying fecal samples over a period of 30 months, they were able to figure out that the infants with food allergies were missing a crucial set of gut bacteria that seemed to be protective. Thus, they were developing food allergies.
So how to fix that?
Well, researchers took the study to, of course, mice.
They found that administering these protective gut bacteria to mice who had allergic reactions suppressed the allergic reaction.
In other words, for all intents and purposes, the injection of these bacteria “cured” them of that allergic reaction.
As the study’s lead author, Dr. Lynn Bry, concluded:
“We’ve identified the microbes that are associated with protection and ones that are associated with food allergies in patients…
If we administer defined consortia representing the protective microbes as a therapeutic, not only can we prevent food allergies from happening, but we can reverse existing food allergies in preclinical models.
With these microbes, we are resetting the immune system.”
Crazy!
The really great part is that researchers think this could work on humans and have already begun kicking human trials into gear with the hopes something could be available in the coming five years.
These trials will investigate fecal transplants targeting peanut allergies, as well as specifically generated probiotic mixes for pediatric food allergies.
Currently, our available treatment for food allergies is mostly avoidance, and if this new treatment worked, it would change (and save) so many lives.
Not just from a physical perspective, but a mental perspective, as well. It’s well-established that food allergies can wreak havoc on a person’s mental health.
