Gut Health Canvas: Empathy
How does your gut foster empathetic behaviors?
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: Empathy
How does your gut foster empathetic behaviors?
- Nguyen et al. (2021) found that low microbiome diversity correlated with higher levels of loneliness and lower levels of compassion and social engagement.
- This correlation could be driven by lifestyle, where limited social interactions relate to low variety in diet and more isolation.
- 👨 A study by Heym et al. (2019) showed that an abundance of Lactobacillus spp. was directly related to positive self-judgement but only indirectly to cognitive depression and lower affective empathy (the ability to share the feelings of others).
How does diet affect mental health?
- Food is a psychoactive substance, which means it can modulate our mood short-term (e.g. hyperactivity from sugar consumption) and long-term (e.g. depression from inflammation).
- Diets like the Mediterranean diet (lots of plant-based foods and healthy fats) are generally associated with improved mental health.
- Inflammation is a key driver of mood disorders. Therefore, food and bacteria that reduce inflammation will improve mood. Bacteria like Lactobacilli, contained in fermented foods, have been shown to have an anti-inflammatory effect.
👨 Research done in humans
🐭 Research done in mice