Scott C. Anderson, ‘A Surprising Way That Exercise Improves Your Mind – Research shows that exercise improves your microbiota, boosting your mood.’, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mood-microbe/202010/surprising-way-exercise-improves-your-mind, Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, LLC (Oct 28, 2020)
Research has found a correlation between the health of your gut and depression. (…) A bad microbiota may lead to a leaky gut, which can allow toxins and bacteria to enter your bloodstream. Once there, your heart dutifully pumps these bad actors to every tissue in your body. Your immune system knows how to track down these interlopers and kill them, but if you are continuously leaking pathogens, you can become susceptible to chronic systemic inflammation. (…) In a recent article for the journal Geriatrics, Victoria Sanborn and John Gunstad of Kent State University point out that these mental problems are more troublesome in the elderly. (…) Scientists are just starting to understand the many ways in which physical-activity-related changes to the gut microbiome might be linked to protecting the brain against memory loss and conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. (…) Experiments in both animals and humans show that exercise improves the integrity of the gut lining. That implies that exercise can keep gut bacteria out of the bloodstream, and indeed athletes show lower blood levels of molecules associated with bacterial infection. (…) It can be tough to get off the sofa, but the benefits are clear. Not only will your body get into better shape, but you’ll feel better and think better too.