Do YOU social anxiety? Scientists find the condition lives in your gut trends now
Scientists have found that social anxiety lives in a person's gut, which could lead to new treatments that affects 15 million US adults,
Researchers at Ireland's University College Cork transplanted gut microbes from a human with the disorder into mice, which showed social phobia behaviors 10 days post implantation.
The team found the animal subjects also had reduced levels of the hormone corticosterone, which is involved with regulation of energy, immune reactions and stress responses.
The findings, according to researchers, has suggested that 'the microbiota–gut– brain axis is an ideal target for identifying novel therapeutics to improve symptoms' to improve social anxiety in humans.
Social anxiety, depression, and other conditions are linked to the gut microbiome in ways that scientists are just beginning to unravel
These results add to a growing body of research that shows a complex link between the intestinal tract and the brain, suggesting that anxiety, depression, autism, and other brain conditions could be treated at least in part by addressing issues that start in the gut.
Importantly, immune system markers indicated that the mice had disrupted immune systems after the transplant, suggesting that this so-called 'gut-brain axis' involves inflammatory molecules that can travel from the gut to the brain.
This study was an offshoot of an existing research experiment that the scientists were doing with people.
The gut microbe samples came from people who had volunteered for a study that was looking into the relationship between gut microbes and social anxiety in people.
So while they had the samples, they tried something strange.
The scientists behind the study started with 12 microbiome samples - fecal samples - from six people with a formal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and six people without social anxiety
Before they could be included in the study, all of the participants had to confirm that they weren't on any psychiatric medications or any nutritional supplements that could affect their microbiome.
Mice were prepared for the study by feeding them a mix of four different antibiotic drugs for a week, 'to deplete the resident microbiota.'
In other words, they were given an intestinal clean slate.
Then, each participants' poop donation was split up six ways and implanted into six different mice, for a total of 72 mice - 36 receiving transplants from people with SAD and 36 receiving transplants from people without.
Scientists implanted the new microbiome into each mouse's gut via a feeding
