Psychobiotics? It sounds like hallucinogenic yoghurt, but it’s actually a new field of psychological research.
Dr. Valerie Taylor, Chief of Psychology of the University of Calgary, has started to do fecal microbiota transplant. In other words, poop swapping! There is a growing body of evidence that your body’s flora, the trillions of bacteria in your body, can greatly impact your mental wellbeing.
Dr. Taylor initially tested it on patients with bipolar disorder, but has opened up the study to those who suffer from depression and irritable bowel syndrome. The goal of the studies are to hopefully help those with depression that conventional treatments can’t help.
The basis of her study is that people with mental illnesses more often have with their digestive tract.
The trials and studies are still in their infancy, but they look promising enough to conduct more studies. Maybe the future of mental illness treatments will involve more poop. Who knows?
