Yogurt Protects Against Depression

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

A new study claims that the dairy product yogurt has the ability to prevent depression. The new fantastic function of our favorite yogurt has been established by conducting comprehensive research.

Studies show that probiotics are found only in the natural yoghurt, increase people's mood because they affect the functioning of the brain.

Initial studies were performed on mice. The results were a positive effect on the brain and the processes in it. A test on humans followed, which proved that the same thing happens in their brains.

Study participants ate probiotic yogurt twice a day for a month. As a result, their brain functions changed, both during brain rest and in response to an "emotional attention task" that tracked how the brain responded to certain emotions.

Symbiotic intestinal bacteria living in the human digestive system protect against disease. They strengthen the immune system, aid digestion and make it easier to maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure. In the presence of stress, the brain sends signals to the intestines.

Therefore, these area is most at risk of "emotional breakdown", expressed in the form of a number of gastrointestinal diseases. The new study shows that the signals can move in the opposite direction, precisely because of the consumption of yogurt.

To prove this theory, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, decided to make the following experiment. They selected 36 women with a healthy weight between the ages of 18 and 53, who were divided into three groups.

Twice a day for a month: the first group consumed yogurt with probiotic strains such as Bifidobacterium animalis, Streptococcus thermophiles and Lactobacillus bulgaricus; the second consumed the dairy product without live bacteria; the third group did not consume dairy products at all.

Before and after the experiment, the researchers scanned the women's brains. During each session, they began with a five-minute brain scan, both at rest and in response to an "emotional attention task."

During the emotional task, women who consumed probiotic yogurt had reduced activity in the part of the brain responsible for touch, ie. - despite the artificially created stressful situations, the body did not respond as before.

The body itself has acquired the function of "anti-stress program". And we all know that stress is the cause of depression. In comparison, women who ate non-probiotic yogurt or did not consume any dairy products did not show a change in activity in this part of the brain during the study period.