If I was the head of a funding agency, and it was my job to determine which research projects to fund, I would have to choose studies on microbial influence on mental health. There is already a lot of current research on bacteria’s influence on our digestive health, and much is known about its influence on our immune system, but there has been fairly little investigation into the microbial influence neurologically. In the future, this research could show that treating certain microbes within our bodies could alleviate some mental health problems. Maybe this could even lead to procedures like microbial or fecal transplants to alleviate conditions. This could be a stark shift from the use of pharmaceuticals to treat mental illness, therefore I believe that this would be a worthwhile pursuit.
