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Stress gets into the belly: Early life stress and the gut microbiome
The impact of stress on our bodies is not just skin-deep. Stress doesn’t just “get under” our skin, it also causes neuroimmune and neuroendocrine derangements that impact overall mental and physical health, causing effects that are more substantial and critical early on in life (in the setting of adverse childhood experiences [ACEs] or what is known as early life stress [ELS]). In this review by Hantsoo et al. (2021), the authors investigate if psychosocial stress leads to microbiome derangements by reviewing evidence derived from human and animal studies that implemented experimental parameters to induce stress, such as chronic stress, acute laboratory stressors, perceived stress, stressful life events, in-utero stress or ELS, in addition to exploring their impact on the microbiome. Furthermore, the authors investigated the body of evidence on the use of dietary modalities targeting the intestinal microbiome in the presence of stress. Analysis of the available evidence showed that ELS, chronic stress, and acute laboratory stress lead to significant derangements of the microbiome in rodents, while ELS and perceived stress negatively impact the microbiota of humans. While preliminary evidence demonstrates the efficacy of pre-, pro-biotics, and omega-3 fatty acid dietary interventions on ameliorating stress-induced microbiome derangements, especially in rodents, more research is necessary to validate these observations. The authors conclude that stress may indeed get “into the belly” by negatively impacting neuroimmune, neuroendocrine, and microbiome-gut-brain axes. [NPID: Adverse childhood experiences, gut-brain axis, hypothalamic pituitary adrenal, HPA, inflammation, microbiota, stress]
Year: 2021
