The Psychobiotic Revolution

Bit of a different blog post today, in the form of a little book review 🤓
For those of you who don't know me personally, I work in mental health but despite this I really champion the relationship between mental and physical health and feel they should be treated equally, and both taken into consideration. Parity of esteem.
From personal experience of my journey to diagnosis this book really resonated with me. Before I was diagnosed a coeliac I was starting to get anxious about eating which could have lead to something way more serious. I felt like everything I ate was making me feel poorly and yet no one could seem to understand why. I was honestly beginning to think it was all in my head, especially as I heard the term "psychosomatic" being thrown around. Eating was starting to effect my mood because eating was making me feel physically so poorly. I can honestly say that since being diagnosed as a coeliac and eating a gluten free diet that I have actually felt like a new woman, both emotionally and physically. So I was super interested to read this book. 
I found the book to be scientific but not overwhelming in terms of jargon and biology. I have a basic understanding of neuroscience due to my career and training so that was helpful but I would say the book is fairly easy to understand for a lay person. 
Mostly I found the book to be "disgustingly fascinating". I've never really given the bacteria living inside me much thought and this really goes into, sometimes graphic, detail. The idea of faecal transplants both disgusts me and fascinates me. Hence my earlier description 😂
The two most interesting chapters for me would have to be the fourth chapter where the author describes how food travels through the body (and out again!) and the bacterial processes along the way. And the penultimate chapter which describes how psychobiotics could be useful in the treatment or aiding in the treatment of today's major diseases. 
One thing I will say is that the book is American so there's talk about the FDA and products on the American market. But overall, the advice and guidance is applicable to anyone. 
If you are a coeliac I would say if you are considering taking a pre or probiotic then do your research, and make sure you have had a significant amount of time on a gluten free diet so that your gut has had sufficient time to heal itself as sometimes taking such supplements can exacerbate problems. 
I take a supplement which I bought from Holland and Barrett a few months back (see attached pictures) but unfortunately I am so terrible at remembering to take it that I can't really say whether it's had any physical or mental health benefits for me 😂

Anyway, if you're interested in gut health and mood I would definitely recommend a read. In the meantime, ramble on...

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