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Gut Health Canvas: Freedom from addiction

How are the gut and addiction connected?

Introducing our Gut Health Canvas

In this series, we dive into the links between the gut and various aspects of our mental and physical health.

Mental Health: Freedom from addiction

How are the gut and addiction connected?

  • The gut microbiota interacts constantly with the central nervous system, making them potential environmental influences on substance use disorders (SUD).
  • 🐭 Studies in mice have shown transplantation of fecal microbiota of individuals diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) leads to altered social and anxiety behaviors and increased preference toward alcohol (Zhao et al., 2020).
  • Conversely, transplantation of microbiota from healthy donors reduced anxiety and depressive behaviors in mice exposed to alcohol (Xu et al., 2018).
  • Mechanism via leaky gut: When food particles and bacteria leave the gut and enter the bloodstream via a damaged intestinal wall, immune cells secrete proteins called cytokines. Cytokines travel to the brain, where they can trigger inflammation. This in turn results in reduced serotonin production (a key hormone for mood regulation), activating several parts of the brain involved in threat perception, reward anticipation, inhibitory control and compulsive behavior. Lower serotonin levels can make us subjectively feel less happy, pushing us to seek pleasure in substances such as sugar, alcohol or drugs, while disturbing our objective perception of pleasure and impulse control.
  • Mechanism via bacteria: Gut microbes like Lactobacillus, Enterococcus and Bacillus produce molecules that can modulate addiction behaviors. An imbalance in the gut could impact these molecules and increase a person's susceptibility to addiction, compared to someone with a healthy gut.
  • While further research is needed to assess the applicability of the studies to humans, they suggest the possibility of probiotic intervention and microbiome management as a new form of therapy for SUD.

 

👨 Research done in humans
🐭 Research done in mice

 

Sources:
Xu et al., 2018
Zhao et al., 2020
Russell et al. 2021
Nature 2024

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