Probiotic Yogurt Changed Brain Connectivity

UCLA researchers repeatedly heard patients say they had not felt depressed or anxious until their gut problems began. In a small 2013 study, they divided 36 healthy women ages 18 to 55 into groups that consumed probiotic yogurt twice daily, a dairy product without probiotics, or nothing for four weeks. Brain scans showed altered activity and connectivity in regions involved in emotion, cognition, and sensation among the women who ate the probiotic yogurt. The study supported a two-way connection between the gut and brain.

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