In this episode we will talk about the influence of diet on disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, autism and attention disorder.
[Music] [Sound] [Sound] one of the most important implications that has had the study of the interaction between the intestine and the brain are the clinical clinical implications not and in particular because those that are related to what is the neurology, the neurology the diseases that are related to with neurological alterations and this has been very revolutionary in the world of neurology
very revolutionary in the neuroscience world
because diseases such as for example Alzheimer's disease was considered until very recently solely and exclusively of neuronal origin and is one of the diseases whose research has been more disturbed by everything that is the interaction is the interaction of the brain with the rest of the the organs one of the bases that has then the interaction of the microbiota with it with the intestine and its clinical application is that the microbiota regulates microbiota regulates a lot of the production of the neurotransmitters are those hormones that are exchanged neurons exchange with each other in order to transmit information are responsible for the deficit or surplus surplus of some of the neurotransmitters that underlie many of the diseases such as schizophrenia schizophrenia acute depression attention deficit disorder or even to a different to another degree also alzheimer's disease then what has been seen for example is that diets rich in fiber promote the generation of of neurotransmitters such as serotonin
serotonin has been known as the hormone of the happiness because it is behind what are the highest emotional higher emotional processes, one of the most important great points of research today is to try to measure trying to measure what is that vitality and I think it's a I like very much an interpretation that is being given in the world of neuroscience and that is to consider the depression, anxiety and life dissatisfaction that a considerable percentage of people which has therefore a considerable percentage of the population as a lack of vitality a study that came out five years ago study that came out five years ago demonstrated that in cities in environments in developed countries approximately 80% of the population defines itself as very tired
this is worrying because defining oneself as very tired as very tired means because of their chronic fatigue it means states of anxiety states of stress that are chronic that is to say lack of vitality the lack of vitality has been very much related to an alteration in the microbiota has been recognized as the very recently, almost three years ago, a new medical term new medical term which is dysbiosis dysbiosis what it is intended to measure is the imbalance that we have in our microbiota more or less because we all have to have the same percentage the same composition of bacteria and yeast in our microbiota
our intestine but there are people who have a deficit of some of them have a deficit of some of them study the alterations or what is the imbalance in our microbiota imbalance of our microbiota can give us clues about the what factors are influencing in this lack of vitality vitality in this chronic fatigue that we are talking about
complaint because a large percentage of the population then as I was saying the neurotransmitters are modulated the generation or directly generate certain neurotransmitters one of the most important avenues of research development that you're seeing today is trying to figure out what neurotransmitters trying to decipher which neurotransmitters and which what percentage of their production depends on diet
diet I have to say that at this point in time it's something that is is being studied it is true that there are many studies supporting some diets supporting others to stop taking some foods versus others but as of today at least to the best of my knowledge it's all still very much up for debate you have to think that this is a field that is very young that is very growing that are being investigated that everything is going at a dizzying speed but I think that we still need to be a little bit more cautious when it comes to scientifically when it comes to scientifically support a diet against to another one, what all the scientific studies seem to agree scientific studies this diverse diet because is related to a diversity of our microbiota and microbiota and the diversity of the microbiota is always related to a general health and within what is the application of the clinical studies of the relationship between the gut and the brain
if I had to stay with one that has been especially favored is in the autistic spectrum so three years ago it came out I have published in a journal a treatment based on fecal transplantation and the consumption of certain probiotics caused a 50% remission of autism spectrum symptoms
symptoms of autism spectrum disorder that seems to be little because it was one of the major milestones that had been had been achieved at the time and this opened also and popularized the use of fecal transplants this is one of the things not that has been more media but that are revolutionizing the world of the world of psychology of psychiatry which has is in fact because recently the last ten years fiscal banks have started to emerge years have begun to emerge fiscal banks and what means that as we know our microbiota we can study the microbiota microbiota we can study the microbiota that we our gut through a stool analysis because we can't study our stool analysis because we can't access directly into the microbiota without being invasive with the person so what we do is we do that there are people that are donors of these feces and there are banks that receive stool sometimes to select the healthy components of a microbiota that's healthy those in those components what it does is that they are inserted into a person obviously via well in the nasal gas and they do when they get to the intestine they repopulate the microbiota and causes the person to restore their microbiota to healthy levels of microbiota in the fecal transplantation is being used today for example for acute for example for acute depression that has become drug resistant
the autism spectrum and another one of the research that's being done that I think is very important for promising is to study the change in the microbiota inferring through the microbiota in the early stages of alzheimer's disease alzheimer's disease has different alzheimer's disease has different stages that go from mild cognitive impairment to the development of alzheimer's to the development of alzheimer's disease
there are people in mild cognitive impairment that do not progress to progress to alzheimer's disease this is one of them
of the objects one of the target populations of studies because we are trying to see what biomarkers that we can do in those early stages of alzheimer's disease so that the disease does not degenerate then one of the hypotheses that we have is that in Alzheimer's disease what we can do in that we find is that in the brain is filled with plaques that are called Alzheimer's plaques
beta amyloid plaques is like residues that have been deposited in the that have been deposited in the brain and protein tangles
tau like skeins of dust literally because they are small pieces of protein structures that are being released
and they were producing a skein and those skeins are deposited those skeins are depositing those balls and those plaques are being deposited in different parts of the brain
what we are trying to do is that those plaques are not deposited there to eliminate them but above all that they are not deposited deposited, one of the studies that are being carried out is to that looks like it might be more promising is how through the diet in those early stages to reduce the deposition of those plaques
another one of the factors that has a very strong influence not in the in the development of Alzheimer's disease but also for example brain damage acquired an is not the neuroinflammation when we have an episode to an alteration neuronal there is a neuronal inflammation the microbiota seems to be behind the immune system then the immune system is the one that controls that controls also the inflammatory processes of the body is also being studied as through the intestinal microbiota we can make the inflammatory processes to attenuate the inflammatory processes so this is another one of the avenues and going back not to what hippocrates was saying the working through the microbiota is opening up the microbiota is opening many, many doors a lot of implications in the world of mental health in the world of in particular in the world of neurology
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Audio:
Subtitles:
Do we make decisions with our body or with reason?
Gut microbiota
Neuroscience of meditation
Stress is an emotion. How does our brain manage it?
Why does the brain need to listen to the body?
What are stress and anxiety?
The influence of body posture on our mind
The silence of the brain: mental calmness
Diet and mental health
What is an unhappy brain like?