mental health disorders Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Singapore Scientists Reveal Gut Microbes’ Hidden Role in Anxiety

The AHA! Team — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:21:06 +0000

Duke-NUS Medical School via EurekAlert! – Could the key to easing anxiety be hidden in our gut? Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School and the National Neuroscience Institute have discovered a crucial connection between gut microbes and anxiety-related behaviour. Their research, published today in EMBO Molecular Medicine, suggests that microbial metabolites– specifically indoles–play a direct role in regulating brain activity linked to anxiety. This finding opens up exciting possibilities for new probiotic-based therapies to improve mental health. The prevalence of mental health disorders has been rising over the years. According to the latest nationwide study, 1 in 7 people in Singapore has experienced a mental health disorder, which includes depressive and anxiety disorders[1]. In 2019, mental health disorders were one of the top four leading causes of disease burden in Singapore[2]. The research team thus set out to investigate the role microbes play in anxious behaviour. In pre-clinical studies, the scientists observed that in a germ-free environment, those which were not exposed to live microbes, showed significantly more anxiety-related behaviour than those with typical resident live microbes. Further investigation revealed that the increased anxiety was associated with heightened activity in a brain region involved in processing emotions such as fear and anxiety, the basolateral amygdala (BLA). This was further identified to be related to specialised proteins within brain cells known as the calcium dependent SK2 channels, associated with anxiety behaviour. In conditions when the body and brain are exposed to live microbe metabolites, the SK2 channels act like a clutch, thus preventing neurons from becoming overly excited and firing too frequently. Associate Professor Shawn Je from Duke-NUS’ Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme and one of the lead authors, explained: “Our findings reveal the specific and intricate neural process that link microbes to mental health. Those without any live microbes showed higher levels of anxious behavior than those with live bacteria. Essentially, the lack of these microbes disrupted the way their brains functioned, particularly in areas that control fear and anxiety, leading to anxious behavior.” The mice showed significantly less anxiety-related behavior To better understand the role of microbes in this process, the researchers introduced live microbes into germ-free mice[3]. This reduced the elevated neuronal activity in the basolateral amygdala and thus SK2 channel activity. As a result, the mice showed significantly less anxiety-related behavior—their emotional responses became like those exposed to microbes. The researchers also tried treatment with indoles, microbial metabolites produced by certain microbes. When the germ-free mice were given indoles, they showed reduced activity in the basolateral amygdala and displayed less anxiety-related behaviour. This demonstrated that our indigenous microbes produce metabolites, which suggest a direct link between our microbiota and maintaining mental balance. Professor Sven Pettersson from the Department of Research, National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore, who is also a lead author of the study, said: “Establishing hunger signals and controlling hunger is an evolutionarily conserved defence mechanism. The physiological switch at birth, can therefore, be viewed as a first major wave of anxiety exposure for the newborn, which simply says, “If you don’t eat, you will die.” Additionally, birth is associated with exposure to breast milk, known to contain microbes that can produce molecules known as indoles. Indoles are known to be secreted in plants when they are exposed to stress or malnutrition (draught) and in this paper we report a similar mechanism in which indoles can regulate anxiety levels in mammals. That is, different levels of circulating microbial plasma indoles in the blood may reflect different sensitivity and vulnerability to stressful situations and therefore variable risk of experiencing anxiety-related situations.” The implications of these observations are multiple: The implications of these observations are multiple: for example, it opens for the therapeutic potential of targeting the gut-brain axis to treat anxiety-related disorders by restoring the microbe composition through dietary supplementation with indoles or by introducing indole-producing gut microbes as probiotics. “In other words, it opens for tailor-made therapies in line with 21st-century precision medicine. Studies such as this illustrate the close hereditary relationship that exists between our indigenous microbes and the higher complexity of life,” concludes Pettersson. Professor Patrick Tan, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS, said: “Our findings underscore the deep evolutionary links between microbes, nutrition and brain function. This has huge potential for people suffering from stress-related conditions, such as sleep disorders or those unable to tolerate standard psychiatric medications. It’s a reminder that mental health is not just in the brain–it’s in the gut too.” The team now hopes to explore clinical trials to determine whether indole-based probiotics or supplements can be effectively used in humans as a natural anxiety treatment. If successful, this could mark the beginning of a new era in mental health care—one where gut microbes help keep our minds at ease. Referrences [1] Institute of Mental Health, Singapore Mental Health study https://www.imh.com.sg/Newsroom/News-Releases/Documents/SMHS%202016_Media%20Release_FINAL_web%20upload.pdf [2] Ministry of Health 28 October 2020 Global Burden of Disease 2019 Study Findings https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/global-burden- of-disease-2019-study-findings [3] The study was conducted according to the National Advisory Committee for Laboratory Animal Research (NACLAR) guidelines. Journal EMBO Molecular Medicine DOI 10.1038/s44321-024-00179-y To read the original article click here.

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Are You Addicted to Drama?

The AHA! Team — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 08:52:39 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #479) and blog, I talk to holistic psychologist, educator and best-selling author Scott Lyons about what it means to be addicted to drama, how a drama addiction affects our mental health and relationships, how to manage a drama addiction, and so much more! As a body-based trauma expert, Doctor of Osteopathy and Mind-Body Medicine specialist, Scott helps people break free from cycles of pain, limited beliefs, and trauma. Scott is an innovator in transformative wellness and trauma therapy, teaching over half a million people internationally to relieve stress and restore vitality. Scott has worked with many of the country’s top leaders and CEOs as an executive coach and wellness consultant. Scott is the creator of The Embody Lab—the largest online learning platform for body-based trauma therapies—and developer of Somatic Stress Release™, a holistic process of restoring biological resilience, taught in over 20 countries. Scott is also the founder and designer of Omala, a wellness brand dedicated to creating sustainably sourced tools for transformation. In his incredible new book, Addicted to Drama, Scott turns the notion of the “drama queen” on its head, showing that drama is an addiction and those who are suffering with it are experiencing a much deeper psychological, biological, and social pain. For a person addicted to drama, the intensity becomes their way of coping. Their life is a constant cycle of crisis, chaos, and chronically high levels of stress. They may never be able to relax without an internal alarm going off, sending them spiraling back toward chaos. Drama is the stirring, the excitement, the exaggeration, the eruption, the unrest, and the medicine to feel alive in relation to the numbing of the internal and external world around them. For someone addicted to drama, the drama is often how they survive—or think they do. However, rather than dismissing addiction to drama as just attention seeking, Addicted to Drama offers clear-eyed empathy, humor, and practical strategies to help us all understand and break free of the drama cycle. First, it is important to understand what being addicted to drama looks like externally and on the inside. Externally, this often feels like a “how did we get here?” or “what just happened?” moment, like something that wasn’t such a big deal erupts and becomes a major issue. The experience is intense because the response doesn’t seem to match the circumstances that caused it. It often feels like someone has sucked the air out of the room—there is no space for anyone else but the person having the reaction, which can be incredibly stressful for everyone involved. Internally, this often feels like the world is against you. Everything feels like it is colliding, and it is hard to get yourself out of the eye of the storm. You feel a deep sense of urgency—you feel like you can never outrun the stress you are experiencing. You are constantly searching for what is going wrong—a sense of unease that does not dissipate. And, if you can’t find what is wrong, you create it, because you have a deep sense of being out of sync with the world, which is often the result of some kind of past trauma and isolation that distorts your sense of yourself and your environment. You are responding true to how you experience the world; you are not just “addicted to drama”. Some signs of a drama addiction are: -Feeling anxious or bored when things are calm -Making mountains out of molehills -Pulling other people into the drama -Craving extreme situations and sensations -Making bad situations universal -Crisis hopping -Enjoying controversy -Causing chaos in relationships -Feeling isolated -Feeling like a victim all the time Thankfully, if someone you know is addicted to drama, there are ways to protect yourself, including: -Recognize when you lose your anchor in the presence of someone else. This is the first step to protecting your mental and physical wellbeing. Awareness is key! -Come back into the present of your own body—grounding yourself in the present through techniques like breathing and so on. -Identify how close you want to be to the drama, and assert boundaries when necessary. If you feel like you have a drama addiction, there are ways you can manage and heal this, including: -Becoming aware of your stress response and how it is affecting your thoughts, emotions and behaviors. -Working on ways to “slow down” when you feel like you are ramping up in the moment to give yourself time to process what you are experiencing. Reframing the addiction to drama in positive ways is key. People who are addicted to drama act from a place of pain and defense—they expect the world to come at them. Understanding this is key; just saying something like “get over yourself” or “you are such a drama queen” is not helpful in the moment and can exacerbate the situation. For more on drama as a coping mechanism, listen to my podcast with Scott (episode #479) and check out his amazing work. Podcast Highlights 2:00 Scott’s amazing story & work 6:40 Scott’s new book Addicted to Drama 7:20, 11:45 What being addicted to drama looks like 13:32 Drama addiction & trauma 17:42 Isolation & drama addiction 21:55 How to tell if someone is addicted to drama 31:20 How to protect yourself from someone who is addicted to drama 37:00, 44:50 How to identify & manage your addiction to drama This podcast and blog are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional. To read the original article click here.

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New Research Identifies Gene Targets of Stress Hormones in the Brain

AHA Publisher — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 07:00:07 +0000

University of Bristol via Newswise – Chronic stress is a well-known cause for mental health disorders. New research has moved a step forward in understanding how glucocorticoid hormones (‘stress hormones’) act upon the brain and what their function is. The findings could lead to more effective strategies in the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders. The study, led by academics at the University of Bristol and published today [6 August] in Nature Communications, has discovered a link between corticosteroid receptors – the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) – and ciliary and neuroplasticity genes in the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in stress coping and learning and memory. The aim of the research was to find out what genes MR and GR interact with across the entire hippocampus genome during normal circadian variation and after exposure to acute stress. The research team also wanted to discover whether any interaction would result in changes in the expression and functional properties of these genes. The study combined advanced next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics and pathway analysis technologies to enable a greater understanding into glucocorticoid hormone action, via MRs and GRs, on gene activity in the hippocampus. The researchers found a previously unknown link between the MR and cilia function. Cilia are small hair-like structures that protrude from cell bodies. Effective cilia function is vitally important for brain development and ongoing brain plasticity, but how their structure and function is regulated in neurons is largely unknown. The discovery of the novel role of MR in cilia structure and function in relation to neuronal development has increased knowledge of the role of these cell structures in the brain and could help resolve cilia-related (developmental) disorders in the future. The team also found that MR and GR interact with many genes which are involved in neuroplasticity processes, such as neuron-to-neuron communication and learning and memory processes. Some of these genes, however, have been linked to the development of mental health disorders like major depression, anxiety, PTSD as well as schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Consequently, glucocorticoid hormone dysfunction, as observed in chronic stress, could have a harmful effect on mental health through their action on these vulnerability genes, providing a potential new mechanism to explain the long-known involvement of glucocorticoids in the aetiology of mental health disorders. Although further research on the role glucocorticoid hormones play in the regulation of these genes is needed, the findings fill the gap between the long-known involvement of glucocorticoids in mental health disorders and the existence of vulnerability genes. Hans Reul, Professor of Neuroscience in Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (THS), said: “This research is a substantial step forward in our efforts to understand how these powerful glucocorticoid hormones act upon the brain and what their function is. “We hope that our findings will trigger new targeted research into the role these hormones play in the aetiology of severe mental disorders like depression, anxiety and PTSD.” Next steps for the research include studying how glucocorticoid hormone action via MR and GR on the hippocampus genome changes under chronic stress conditions and, thanks to a new BBSRC grant, glucocorticoid action via MR and GR upon the female brain genome. Very little is known about this research area in females as most studies on stress and glucocorticoid hormones have been conducted in males. To read the original article click here.

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