Foods versus Probiotics for Anxiety - Which Is Best?

11-11-2019

Which is best, food or supplements?

A new 2019 study out of China showed that probiotic supplements have some good benefits, but diet and lifestyle changes are much more beneficial to microbiota and calming anxiety symptoms.

This study was a meta-analysis, which means it was a study that looked at a bunch of studies. It looked at twenty-one studies which contained 1503 subjects.

The first thing this study showed is that whether you use food or supplements, when you regulate intestinal flora using healthy approaches, you can effectively improve anxiety symptoms.

The conclusions of this study were:

- the best energy source for our gut bacteria is good food, especially fiber rich foods

- most studies show a 4 – 8 week period to look at the effect of probiotics, which may be too short. Longer trials may show benefits beyond 36%

- there were pretty much no adverse effects with either foods or supplements

reference: Beibei Yang, Jinbao Wei, Peijun Ju, Jinghong Chen. Effects of regulating intestinal microbiota on anxiety symptoms: A systematic review. General Psychiatry, 2019 32: e100056 DOI:

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