MIND BODY MICROBIOME

Tonight I’m talking ‘Your gut, brain and bacteria’ as part of a worldwide festival called the Pint of Science. Thousands of scientists will be hitting pubs across 24 countries from May 20-22 to share the fun bits of their research with the world. Look at all the countries who will be having a pint of science tonight!

To share the love, below are links to all the resources I mention in my talk.

I have no c...

You may have heard about AGEs - yet another fancy term for something that is apparently bad for our health. AGEs are allegedly another type of nasty found in those not-so-good-for-us treat foods.

Declared by some as the key to age-related health conditions, AGEs - Advanced Glycation End products - have been linked to heart disease, insulin resistance, and neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s a...

In the previous article, we discussed limitations of current drug treatment approaches for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the growing understanding about the importance of lifestyle and health behaviours. This is where the gut microbiome comes in.    

How could the microbiome be involved?

The bidirectional communication that takes place between the gut microbiota and the central nervous system has been...

Watching a loved one’s gradual decline from Alzheimer’s Disease is no easy feat. My family experienced this first hand as we watched my beautiful Nan - Dorothy - live with this torturous disease for years before she peacefully passed. Along with memory loss, people with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) dementia can be unpredictable, aggressive and completely different to the person they have been their whole liv...

We have trillions of bacteria living inside us, with most residing in our gut. Until recently, it has been challenging to explore our gut bugs, but advancements in genetic sequencing have allowed us to discover these bacteria by sequencing their DNA. Over 1000 species of different bacteria exist in your colon, with many contributing to the healthy functioning of your digestive system, immune system, and...

We’re learning exciting new things about the microbiome all the time. As a psychologist and a neuroscientist, I’m most interested in how the bugs in our guts can affect our brains and our behaviour. With some help from my colleagues (including the wonderful Bridget Callaghan, of the Two Brains blog), I’ve been testing out some ideas about how a probiotic treatment can help infant rats recover from the ef...

So what is the real story behind the food-mood link? What kinds of foods affect the brain, and how? Sarah is one of my colleagues at the aptly-named Food and Mood Centre, where we study these very questions. Sarah's PhD focussed on the biological pathways between diet and depression, so she is the perfect person to tell us more about supporting mental health with food. Thanks, Sarah!

Whether we’re reading...

A concept that is strongly linked to the microbiome and its impact on the body, is epigenetics. As Dr Emma Beckett explains in this article, epigenetics is one way that the way we live our lives can be imprinted on the body, and passed down from one generation to the next. Effects of the microbiome on epigenetics may be another an important way that the microbiome affects our health. Over to you, Emma.

Ev...

Recently I presented at the Falk Foundation’s 207th symposium, ‘Gut Microbiome and Mucosal or Systemic Dysfunction: Mechanisms, Clinical Manifestations and Interventions’. It was in Brisbane, and was a stimulating start to a warm weekend getaway (from Melbourne’s impending wintery weather). 

The research I was presenting in a talk and the poster on this page was about the relationship between gut bacteria...