Whatever-makes-you-happy is something commonly said when we are allowing people to make their own choice on a topic that we may not be in agreement on. When a guy says whatever-makes-you-happy to a girl, he’s probably communicating to her, in an indirect way, that she’s being self-focused and not considering his wishes. Culturally, the whatever-makes-you-happy philosophy has, in effect, made it seem that happiness is based on what is in my head, separate from the happiness of my fellow man, unrelated to self-sacrifice, suffering, or the difficult path. It’s often used as an alibi for selfish living. From my experience, happiness is the result of growth, diligence, fortitude, hard work, and living in harmony with natural law rather than something that is attained by being sought out for itself.
Last month we discovered that the foods we think are making us happy are in reality not. We saw how depression is associated with an unhealthy diet. “Increasing evidence indicates a strong association between a poor diet and the exacerbation of mood disorders, including anxiety and depression, as well as other neuropsychiatric conditions.”1 That’s science’s perspective. While a few variables are at play here, this association has a lot to do with what’s going on in the digestive tract. This month in seeking to understand how food affects mood we will focus on the tube down under, referred to as the gut.
I am fascinated by the gut’s multitudinous roles within the human body. It is an excellent communicator to the immune system, the endocrine system, and the nervous system, especially the brain. Kirsten Tillisch MD, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine in the digestive diseases division at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine states, “Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut. Our study shows that the gut–brain connection is a two-way street.”2 The vagus nerve is the highway through which much of this two-way traffic travels, with 90% of the traffic flowing into the brain and a surprising 10% directed from the brain.
Much of the communication from the gut comes from a diverse community of microbes referred to as the microbiome or microbiota. Some 100 trillion microbes, including bacteria, virus, and fungi, live nestled in the mucosal lining of our intestines. Clans exist within this community with some community members contributing to our health and well-being while other community members do not.
The gut microbiome is said to influence depressive states via its communication to the brain through the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system.
Gut bacteria produce byproducts. Amazingly, some of these byproducts promote inflammation, enter into the blood circulation, and are even able to cross the blood brain barrier.3 That’s astounding. A chronic, low-level inflammatory condition has been positively correlated with depression and the gut could be where the inflammation is kept aflame. When inflammation exists in the intestinal lining it is hyperpermeable. This state of leaky gut, as it is often referred to, promotes the production of inflammatory molecules and is associated with increased bacterial byproducts in systemic circulation in rodent studies.4 Specific strains of bacteria produce specific byproducts. It could be that the composition of the bacterial community could be an upstream trigger for happiness deficiency. It could be that by improving gastrointestinal health and promoting a healthy gut microbiome that we could inadvertently support mental health. This will be the topic of part 3 next month.
The Bible says, “When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy.” Psalms 128:2. I love how this verse encapsulates the truth that happiness is a byproduct of labor and that it used the word “eat” to describe the experience.
- Adan, R., 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://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/changing-gut-bacteria-through-245617
- Logsdon, A. F., Erickson, M. A., Rhea, E. M., Salameh, T. S., & Banks, W. A. (2018). Gut reactions: How the blood-brain barrier connects the microbiome and the brain. Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.), 243(2), 159–165. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29169241/
- Evrensel, A., & Ceylan, M. E. (2015). The Gut-Brain Axis: The Missing Link in Depression. Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 13(3), 239–244.
Müller, B., Rasmusson, A. J., Just, D., Jayarathna, S., Moazzami, A., Novicic, Z. K., & Cunningham, J. L. (2021). Fecal Short-Chain Fatty Acid Ratios as Related to Gastrointestinal and Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults. Psychosomatic medicine, 83(7), 693–699. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8428857/
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