Depression? Bacteria in Your Gut May Have Caused It – Or Made You Healthier | Hacker News Reader

Depression? Bacteria in Your Gut May Have Caused It – Or Made You Healthier

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Archived article: https://archive.is/3dR7c

We keep hearing about these gut bacteria controlling our mood and life, but what can we do about it?

Eat probiotic? Raw? Vegan?paleo?

Prebiotic/change your diet. Probiotics don’t make a lasting change, but your diet does.

You can also identify acute issues with specific foods with an elimination diet.

A youtuber called Gojiman [1] seems to know a lot about gut health. He's a vegan and a nutritionist. He makes educational videos and also offers some tests and consultation + therapy if test results indicate your gut microbiome is out of balance.

On the gut causes of depression you can watch this video of his [2]. On the benefit of a vegan diet for mental health you can check this video of his [3]. He has a lot of great content on a variety of nutrition and health related topics.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8zKmTVcs5s3IIR2DVlxfzA [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1tdCP41UGs [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GQ3Yo-0MiI

I've battled gut dysbiosis for years. To try to improve your mood, you could take some probiotics marketed as helping to do that. I used to take Garden of Life brand mood+ probiotic (you can probably find this at your local Whole Foods or regional health food store), but started having constipation and symptoms of excess histamine. Now I recommend a probiotic by the company LiftedNaturals that doesn't contain any histamine-boosting strains:

https://shop.liftednaturals.com/products/mood-super-strains

It is _so frustrating_ trying to research nutrition, because there's so much bullshit out there. You can read books and books and books about it and still not come away with a clear answer or consensus.

It's also one of those topics that seems to bring otherwise sensible people, including people who post frequently on HN, into an orbit of magical thinking, and any two people will swear by their diametrically opposed arguments about the healthiest way to eat. (I don't mean to be hostile to anyone; I just get frustrated trying to learn about this topic.)

Anything beyond Michael Pollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" seems to turn into a hodgepodge dubious claims pretty quickly.

Pollan's advice is so simple, but like many simple things it can be really hard for people to follow in practice. Sometimes it seems like we are way too good at out-smarting ourselves rather than keeping it simple. Food is really the simplest thing in the world - humans survived on this earth for tens of thousands of years before anybody knew anything about gut bacteria, vitamins, macronutrients, etcetera. I think it's best not to overthink nutrition and just try to eat good, whole foods like our ancestors ate. It also so happens that those foods are the most delicious and satisfying. I like Pollan's other principle of, "If your grandma wouldn't recognize it, don't eat it!".

I dunno man, plants are trying to kill us.. they don't want to be eaten..

Fecal transplants from "super not depressed" donors.

Easy prebiotics(fibers) because they feed good gut bacteria. If you feel like you need more, you can add on probiotics(bacteria supplements, but that's are still a very new field)

If you can procure the Kefir mushroom, get it and start feeding it milk (there are good guides how to do it online). You'll get a drink rich in gut bacteria (but not only).

Definitely improved my life.

It's also really prominent treatment in Russia and Turkey (and the Balkans in general).

Is this a homemade version of the fermented milk drink also called kefir?

Yes, both are often confused. Many people, me included, distinguish them by using "kefir mushroom" and "kefir drink" (which is the product of milk + the mushroom). I had the option to buy pre-made kefir drink but decided to go the harder road of taking care of it and feeding it myself. Gradually found my own best practices and now I get 2L of it every 4 days. (Rough dosage is a handful of mushrooms for 1L of milk; something like 15 grams or so.)

Just 2-3 sips make me feel like no coffee ever could. It's an instant health improver. And this is coming from a jaded cynical programmer. Trust me, I am not selling anything and this is not a cult -- I just wanted better health. Kefir helped a lot.

---

A quick guide on how to work with the mushroom, if you need one:

You put it in a well-closed container with milk and you could open it up to "breathe" 1-2 times for several hours during the entire fermenting period (for me it's 4 full days and I open it once for 5-6h). You stir it every 12 or 24h (for me the latter). You'll quickly see why -- the water should fall to the bottom of the container and you get this slimy substance on top. NEVER USE METAL CUTLERY OR METAL STRAINER OR HOT WATER WITH KEFIR! I use wooden spoons to stir and sip it but plastic works just fine.

Some people store the stuff in a fridge but that makes it way too slow to ferment (2 weeks I've been told). I keep both of my jars in a normal room.

After the fermenting period is over, filter the product through a non-metal strainer (I use a plastic one). I opt to stir the mushroom + some thick milk left on the top of the strainer until any leftover product drains fully through the strainer. Put the product in a bottle (or any closed container). Then let the product (the fermented milk you filtered) sit in a fridge for ~12h or so (but it's still ready to drink right away, it just ferments a little more when left alone without the mushrooms inside it and my experimentation has led me to believe that makes it stronger; other people on the net say the same).

Now wash the mushrooms with cold water, thoroughly (I simply wash the mushrooms with a wooden spoon while cold tap water runs on top of it; do it while it's still in the strainer, makes it much easier to wash since any leftover water + milk gets drained and isn't getting in the way). Put the mushrooms back in your container (which you should also wash, with cold water), put new fresh milk, and you're done.

Every now and then the mushroom gets too big. You can put away some of it and freeze it in a small container with some milk (just enough to cover it, doesn't have to be 1L, I use several very small plastic jars akin to those used for blood or sperm donations). You can later unfreeze them (don't force it; leave it unfreeze by itself which could take 12-24h easily), wash it well with cold water and you can use it. Can't advise you on when and how -- you'll find out for yourself. A good rule of thumb is that it's better to risk having too much mushrooms in the milk and not too few (because that will basically net you a mediocre yoghurt and nothing else).

I have 2x 1.5L jars and my fermenting period is 4 full days. Usually takes me 15 minutes to do the whole thing I described.

Hope that helps. If you have any doubts about your gut health at all (and as a modern human in the 21st century I think we all should) then give homemade kefir a fair try. It substantially improved my life.

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