What nutrients or supplements can help with depression?

Question

Dr.Shawn Talbott · Answer

Hi there. This is a great question, what nutrients or supplements can help with depression? And when we talk about depression, we're talking about small-d depression, the mood state that most of us experience on a fairly regular basis where we're just not feeling as happy or as motivated or as engaged as we want to be. We're not talking about treating major depressive disorder, which is a disease state, and we don't want to do that with supplements and nutrients. But if we want to improve our mood, there's all kinds of ways that we can do it, and one of the ways that I love to do that is through the gut-brain axis, how we can modulate what's happening in the second brain, our gut, and especially our microbiome, to send signals to the brain in our head, our first brain, so that we can improve how we feel. So one of the ways that we can do that is with a specific strain of bacteria called Lactobacillus helveticus 52. That 52 strain we know will raise serotonin levels, and that can help us be happier. It's not like the serotonin goes from the gut and leaks out into the bloodstream and leaks into the brain. We know it doesn't work that way because serotonin from the gut cannot pass the blood-brain barrier. But having more serotonin signaling in the gut does send a signal, probably through the vagus nerve, maybe through your cytokines, maybe through your immune system, to signal well-being in the brain. As a result of that, you feel happier, so we can consider helveticus 52 to be an anti-depression strain in certain ways. There's another strain called Bifidobacterium longum 175 that can help increase the production of GABA, the body's primary relaxing neurotransmitter, and when you're anxious and stressed, that can lower that anxious feeling and make you feel calmer. We also have a strain called Lactobacillus rhamnosus 11. That 11 strain we know can lower cortisol, the body's primary stress hormone, so in a lot of ways, we consider Lactobacillus rhamnosus 11 to be an antistress strain that can help us feel calmer. So helveticus 52 for depression, longum 175 for anxiety, and rhamnosus 11 for cortisol are all different ways that we can help ourselves feel better in terms of overall mood, overall calmness, overall stress levels. Check them out, you guys. Thanks. Bye-bye.

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"What nutrients or supplements can help with depression?"