After learning on the possible impacts microbes have on mental health, I’d support funding for research that involves understanding how microbes influence disorders such as depression. As mentioned in the lectures from that week, there have been some studies on mice that show depressive symptoms can be manipulated with microbes. However, these experiments are difficult to relate to humans since the subjects studied were sterile and manually inoculated with microbes. From this project, it is possible we will learn how differences in variation of microbes can affect our mental health, and how manipulating those same microbes may alleviate or completely eradicate depressive symptoms in patients. Because the stomach and brain are directly connected via the vagus nerve, it is possible that modifications to the gut microbiota can influence our mental states. With that said, would it also be possible that our diet can influence our mental states, since the foods we eat come into direct contact with the microbes in our microbiotas?
