HLL11 Nutritional Psychiatry

Yoga Therapy for your Microbiome

Time & Date: TBA, 9:30am – 1:00pm
Hosted By: Celia Roberts

Yoga Therapy has been proven to be good for digestion and your gut microbiome, but it is not only limited to the gut microbiome. Yoga also affects the lung microbiome, oral microbiome and genital microbiome. Yoga also has shown excellent results for stimulating the vagus nerve and liberating immune cells in the gut which have excellent benefits for overall immune function.

Yoga therapy has been shown to be an effective way to improve gut and lung health. In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, yoga was found to be associated with positive changes in the composition of gut bacteria. The study looked at the effects of yoga on 42 healthy adults and found that those who practised yoga had significantly higher levels of beneficial gut bacteria, compared to those who did not practice yoga.

In another study, published in the journal PLOS One, yoga was found to be associated with increased levels of interleukin-12 (IL-12), a cytokine that plays a key role in immunity. The study looked at the effects of yoga on 30 healthy adults and found that those who practised yoga had significantly higher levels of IL-12, compared to those who did not practice yoga.

Yoga has also been shown to be an effective way to improve lung health. In a study published in the journal Thorax, yoga was found to be associated with improved lung function. The study looked at the effects of yoga on 25 healthy adults and found that those who practised yoga had significantly better lung function, compared to those who did not practice yoga.

We also see from the research of Gaeckle et al., 2020 that it is critical to maintain a healthy oral microbiome if a healthy lung microbiome is desired. Researchers generally believe that microbiota immigrate into the lungs via “micro-aspirations” of the oropharynx – in other words, breath inhalations take the organisms present in the mouth and carry them into the lungs. The oral microbiome can be finely tuned through pranayama practice and Ayurveda.

You will learn how to affect the microbiome with bottom up processing (body) and top down processing (mind), learning about the following three axises through the practice of yoga asana and pranayama:

• Gut-Brain Axis
• Gut-Lung Axis
• Oral-Lung Axis

We will be exploring:

• How Yoga & Meditation can help you amplify the current research findings, creating change in the brain, gut, lung, oral, nasal, eye, skin and genital microbiome.
• How Ayurveda, Mindful Eating and Meditation can reduce the size of the amygdala, increase the volume of the hippocampus and diversity of the gut flora.
• How to Practice Self Compassion Meditation to lead us to make more mindful food choices.
• Understanding that the microbiome is modifiable (within hours), and how this presents just a really fantastic target for both prevention and treatment of mental disorders.
• Understanding the Gut- Brain Axis from a Yoga and Pranayama perspective.
• Understanding the Gut-Lung Axis from a Yoga & Pranayama perspective.
• Understanding the Oral-Lung Axis from a Yoga & Pranayama perspective.

Nourishing Our Gut Microbiome

Time & Date: TBA, 1:45pm – 4:45pm
Hosted By: Lisa Carrigg, Intuitive Eating Dietitian, Accredited Practising Dietician

Everyone has a different body, and much like the one of a kind fingerprints each body has, it also has a unique community of organisms living on it and in it. The community within being that of the gut microbiome. This community develops based on many factors and continues to be shaped throughout a lifetime. Some of these factors are entirely outside of our control, but some of them are things that we could modify or change. We still have much to learn about the gut microbiome, but what we have learned so far indicates the importance of the members of this community and their health to our own health and well-being. We are intimately connected with them, and throughout our lifetime we are influencing and impacting them just as they are also influencing and impacting us.

Food components in our diet provide not only necessary nutrients to our own body but also food for this mutualistic microbial flora.

While nutrition and the gut microbiome is challenging to study, what we can see in research over and over again is that generally eating patterns which are higher in foods such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, fish, bioactive compounds, olive oil, nuts and seeds and are overall adequate in energy correlate with better health and wellbeing. Many of these foods are the very same ones that we observe having a positive impact on the gut microbiome.

The Gut Microbiome

The bacterial cells living within the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) outnumber human cells by a factor of 10, and the genes encoded by the bacteria within the GIT outnumber human genes by more than 100 times. We are, in a sense, more bacteria than we are human. The human gut microbiome and its role in both health and disease has been the subject of extensive research, establishing its involvement in human metabolism, nutrition, physiology, and immune function (Bull MJ, 2014).

Most of the exploration of diet-microbe-metabolites has been focused on SCFA (short-chain fatty acid) production from fiber. However, other metabolites are gaining increased interest.

We will be exploring:

• The development of the gut microbiome and what influences it throughout our lifetime
• What we know about nutrition’s impact on the gut microbiome
• Ways to support the gut microbiome and gut health (do I need prebiotics and/or probiotic supplements? What about fermented foods and bioactive compounds?)
• What our current understanding in the nutrition research is of the gut microbiome’s impact and role on digestive health and other health conditions

Ayurveda & Mindful Living Plan

Time & Date: TBA, 9:30am – 1:00pm
Hosted By: Celia Roberts

Based on the wisdom of Ayurveda, Buddhism and Chinese Medicine we will explore the daily living plans that give rise to a more meditative life and mindfulness of consumption through all the five senses.

Together, we will look at a personalised Ayurvedic Daily Living Plan and Mindful Eating Plan, acknowledging other traditions and practices in Chinese Medicine and Buddhist Monastic Practices. We will also discuss the science behind daily mindfulness routines and practices that are proven to work for optimising health, cultivating a realistic personalised daily mindful living plan for you based on science of what works for neuroplastic and bioplastic change in the awakened brain.

We will explore the concept of non-grasping and non-attachment to food and our other addictions that tend to deplete our present moment awareness and attentional reservoirs. Ultimately we will discuss how to use sustainable Food choices as Medicine for our soul and to heal the body and consciousness with food and nutritional psychiatry.

We will be exploring:

• Ayurvedic Daily Living Plan with gentle comparisons to other traditions.
• Chinese Medicine and Buddhist Monastic Practices.
• How to cultivate a realistic personalised daily mindful living plan for you based on science of what works for neuroplastic and bioplastic change.
• Mindful eating plan based on Ayurvedic recommendations.
• Using Food as Medicine and to heal the Body and Consciousness.
• Top Tips to Attaining Better Metabolic Health: (1) eat real, unprocessed, clean food; (2) stick to the outsides of the grocery store where there are no processed foods; (3) get quality sleep; (4) manage stress; (5) move your body; (6) get sunlight; (7) avoid toxins in food and environmentally – Dr Casey Means​

Brain-Biome Nutritional Psychiatry

Time & Date: TBA, 1:45pm – 4:45pm
Hosted By: Sharon Carius, Clinical Nutritionist and Metabolic Balance® practitioner

The links between mood, sleep quality, cognition and general mental health are increasingly connected to the food we eat. The connections formed now fall under the term ‘Nutritional Psychiatry’ – referring to the relationship between the gut and the brain, or the gut-brain axis.

The diversity of the microbiome plays a crucial role in it all.

Dietary interventions have looked at people who were either moderately or profoundly depressed and on medication. A “peasants diet” or a Mediterranean diet, which is a naturally anti-inflammatory diet, creates changes within hours in the microbial gut population and significant changes within weeks. A peasant’s diet is not about complicated health products or processed superfoods. It’s highly unprocessed: rich in oily fish, with a slight inclusion of red meat, and a lot of fibre and fermented foods for your microbes to feed upon – it’s a super healthy ‘back to basics’ diet.

Metabolically resetting the body to prepare for microbial change and balance maximises the effects of metabolic changes within the body’s functioning physically and mentally.

We will be exploring:

• The gut-brain connection – Nutritional Psychiatry.
• Strains and species of probiotics for different conditions- anxiety, sleep, mood, eczema, and iron absorption.
• Links between individual blood pathology, anthropometric data, and the foods best aligned to reset metabolic pathways.
• Learn the importance of consuming different types of protein from other protein groups that align with Ayurveda principles.
• Scientific principles that align with the Ayurveda holistic approach to nutrition in supporting the body to function in an optimal state of health.

References:

Adan, R. A. H., van der Beek, E. M., Buitelaar, J. K., Cryan, J. F., Hebebrand, J., Higgs, S., Schellekens, H., & Dickson, S. L. (2019). Nutritional psychiatry: Towards improving mental health by what you eat. European Neuropsychopharmacology : The Journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 29(12), 1321–1332. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EURONEURO.2019.10.011

Cai, T., Shi, X., Yuan, L. Z., Tang, D., & Wang, F. (2019). Fecal microbiota transplantation in an elderly patient with mental depression. International Psychogeriatrics, 31(10), 1525–1526. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610219000115

Fond, G. B., Lagier, J. C., Honore, S., Lancon, C., Korchia, T., de Verville, P. L. S., Llorca, P. M., Auquier, P., Guedj, E., & Boyer, L. (2020). Microbiota-Orientated Treatments for Major Depression and Schizophrenia. Nutrients 2020, Vol. 12, Page 1024, 12(4), 1024. https://doi.org/10.3390/NU12041024

Li, Y., Lv, M. R., Wei, Y. J., Sun, L., Zhang, J. X., Zhang, H. G., & Li, B. (2017). Dietary patterns and depression risk: A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research, 253, 373–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PSYCHRES.2017.04.020

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Magnusson, K. R., Hauck, L., Jeffrey, B. M., Elias, V., Humphrey, A., Nath, R., Perrone, A., & Bermudez, L. E. (2015). Relationships between diet-related changes in the gut microbiome and cognitive flexibility. Neuroscience, 300, 128–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.NEUROSCIENCE.2015.05.016

Malan-Muller, S., Valles-Colomer, M., Raes, J., Lowry, C. A., Seedat, S., & Hemmings, S. M. J. (2018). The gut microbiome and mental health: Implications for anxiety- and trauma-related disorders. OMICS A Journal of Integrative Biology, 22(2), 90–107. https://doi.org/10.1089/omi.2017.0077

Marx, W., Moseley, G., Berk, M., & Jacka, F. (2017). Nutritional psychiatry: the present state of the evidence. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 76(4), 427–436. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665117002026

Quigley, E. M. M. (2010). Prebiotics and probiotics; modifying and mining the microbiota. In Pharmacological Research (Vol. 61, Issue 3, pp. 213–218). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2010.01.004

Valles-Colomer, M., Falony, G., Darzi, Y., Tigchelaar, E. F., Wang, J., Tito, R. Y., Schiweck, C., Kurilshikov, A., Joossens, M., Wijmenga, C., Claes, S., van Oudenhove, L., Zhernakova, A., Vieira-Silva, S., & Raes, J. (2019). The neuroactive potential of the human gut microbiota in quality of life and depression. Nature Microbiology, 4(4), 623–632. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0337-x

Wastyk, H. C., Fragiadakis, G. K., Perelman, D., Dahan, D., Bryan, D., Yu, F. B., Topf, M., Gonzalez, C. G., Robinson, J. L., Joshua, E., Sonnenburg, E. D., Gardner, C. D., & Sonnenburg, J. L. (2020). Gut Microbiota-Targeted Diets Modulate Human Immune Status Authors.

Wu, M., Tian, T., Mao, Q., Zou, T., Zhou, C. juan, Xie, J., & Chen, J. jun. (2020). Associations between disordered gut microbiota and changes of neurotransmitters and short-chain fatty acids in depressed mice. Translational Psychiatry, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01038-3