Probiotic for your mental health
Most of you know that I’m not the biggest fan of probiotics but it’s only because I think too many companies have jumped on the bandwagon and take advantage of the average person to make money with false claims.
I do, however, always look out for any probiotics that I think have made a significant difference with my clients. When I look for a probiotic, they must have a strong evidence base behind them, and I take my time in sourcing the right one. The latest find is one by Activated Probiotics:
https://activatedprobiotics.com.au/probiotics/lift-probiotic
Their Biome Lift Probiotic contains some well researched bacterial strains and, although I was still a skeptic, I have recommended it to a few clients to see if they felt any difference. I was after a probiotic or a psychobiotic that may help with anxiety, mental health, depression and related areas. The research was very contradictory in parts with the strains in this particular probiotic, but these types of results are expected as everyone has a different gut community, genetics and diet of course so you can’t expect miracles. But the reason I chose this probiotic was because of the quality of the strains and the evidence behind them. So, what did my clients experience?
There 3 of them and 2 of them told me they did actually feel better mentally. They all experience a lot of flatulence at the beginning which can be very common when starting a new probiotic but that was the only side effect reported. They were all following a reasonably high fibre diet with no ultra-processed foods so that they could feed the probiotics and give them the best chance of survival. I asked them to stop the probiotics once they finished the first box to see if they still felt the same or not.
Was it placebo or not?
They reported that they still felt good after 2 weeks (and they didn’t know each other). This probiotic is worth a go if you do have a bit of depression etc. and you have a decent amount of fibre in your diet. You won’t get good results from probiotics if you have a poor diet as there’s nothing for them to eat so have a good look at your food first and include some more fibre and wholefoods if you are lacking in that area.