The Mind-Gut Connection Newsletter
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Practical insights on brain-gut health, nutrition, and wellness — grounded in the latest science and delivered in accessible form.
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Is There a Link Between Fungi in the Gut and ADHD in Kids?
Most microbiome research stops at bacteria, but a Taiwanese team looked at the fungi instead and found a clear difference between children with ADHD and healthy controls. One yeast species showed up in higher numbers in the ADHD group, and what its secretions did to cultured intestinal cells points to a mechanism worth understanding. A separate study found gut bacteria in ADHD patients producing more of a specific neurotransmitter’s building blocks, with brain scans showing an unexpected effect….
How Obesity Can Impact Your Brain Health
Fat tissue behaves differently depending on how much of it there is, and in lean people it does something most readers would not predict. Researchers feeding fruit flies a high-sugar diet found the brain’s cleanup crew stopped doing its job, which explains more about cognitive decline than weight alone ever could. Not everyone carrying excess weight develops neurodegenerative disease, and the exceptions may tell us as much as the rule….
Are Changes in the Gut Microbiome Associated with the Development of Cancer?
Of the roughly one trillion microbial species on Earth, only eleven are known to cause cancer, and together they account for a striking share of cases worldwide. One bacterium injects a toxin directly into the cells lining the stomach, and what that toxin switches off is the reason it carries the strongest known risk for gastric cancer. Comparing the microbiomes of people with and without cancer cannot tell us which came first, and the piece is direct about what that limitation means….
How to Prevent Muscle Loss as You Age
A woman in her late 60s told her doctor she felt like she was getting scrawnier every year. She walks, does yoga, lifts weights twice a week. She was doing everything she was supposed to do, and the muscle kept slipping away anyway. Sports medicine physician Dr. Jordan Metzl opened a recent column in the Washington Post with her story, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, because I’ve heard some version of that sentence from nearly everyone I know over 60. The condition has a name most people never hear until it applies to them: sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. Metzl’s argument is that the decline is real and also far more negotiable than the just-getting-old story we tell about it….
Diet and Fermented Foods in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Management
One diet trial changed what 25 IBD patients ate. Within weeks, their gut bacteria had reorganized around it. A single microbe stood out in the results, and what it produces may be the reason the diet works at all. Blood tests told the other half of the story: inflammatory markers moved in opposite directions depending on what people ate….
Your Brain May Process Imagination More Like Reality Than We Thought
Close your eyes and picture an apple. Researchers just watched that happen, neuron by neuron, inside 16 people’s brains. Nearly half of something surprising showed up in both seeing and imagining. That overlap is the finding. Scientists could guess what people were picturing. The wrong guesses were the most revealing part….
Are Bananas Making Your Smoothies Less Gut-Friendly?
What happens to the flavanols in your berries the moment a banana hits the blender with them. Why keeping the two apart until you drink them still didn’t fully protect the flavanols. The number that decides whether any of this should actually change your smoothie routine….
Does Where You Live Shape Your Gut Microbiome?
What 721 gut microbiome samples had in common with the neighborhoods they came from. Why one of the most studied beneficial gut bacteria was not evenly spread across those neighborhoods. The one factor, out of 64 the researchers measured, that best explains the gap….
Three Ways a Fiber-Rich Diet Can Support Immune Health
Where most of your immune cells actually sit, and why that changes what “immune support” should mean this season. The weekly number from the American Gut Study that tracks with the most diverse microbiome, and it isn’t grams of fiber. What your bacteria build out of that fiber, and how those molecules reach immune cells well beyond the gut….
Alcohol and The Gut Microbiome
What heavy drinking does to the barrier separating your gut contents from the rest of your body. Why wine drinkers in one British study showed something beer and liquor drinkers didn’t. The reason researchers still won’t call moderate drinking good for your microbiome….
The Best Sources of Protein
How much protein you actually need after 60, and why the standard guideline was never written for you. The one plant protein that carries all nine essential amino acids on its own. Why calling most plant proteins “incomplete” gets the science wrong….
Are Detoxes Actually A Good Idea?
The popularity of detoxes and cleanses is continuously on the rise, with countless options for juice cleanses, tea detoxes, and fasting protocols. The market is flooded with products promising rapid weight loss, increased energy and general “health resets”. While a cleanse may sound promising after a week of overindulging on vacation or as a quick-fix solution to losing weight, these detoxes may do more harm than good….