Gut feeling: Study links depression to digestive bacteria

The gut is supposed to be like a second brain and is connected to the brain via the vagus nerve, which is sort of like a superhighway between the body and brain. If there is an imbalance in the gut with 'bad' bacteria and fungi like candida crowding out the beneficial bacteria then you start to have health issues. Depression is only one of these problems.

Candida overgrowth in the gut, for example, can cause what's known as leaky gut, which leads to allergies, foggy thinking, chronic athletes foot and on and on as the blood becomes contaminated with toxins from the fungi.

To cut a long story short it can be treated thru diet, stress management, probiotics, exercise and natural supplements etc. Detoxing and having amalgams replaced with non-metal fillings will also go a long way to getting the gut bacteria back into balance.

There's an easy (but rough) test to check whether a person has candida; do a search on "candida, spit test".

Anyway I'm not a doctor and only know about this stuff because I've been dealing with a gut problem for the last 20 years or so - now mostly cleared up and manageable. The doctors I originally went to had no idea what was causing my symptoms and the solution was to prescribe ointment, steroids or some pill which were mostly worthless and possibly even contributed to the problem.

I have recently wondered if diet sodas with the artificial sweeteners have some effect on gut bacteria

Spot on. Same goes for a diet high in carbs as well.

Theres a lot of truth to this. Most people don’t realise that most of their immune system is in their gut.