Questions About Anxiety & Probiotics

[Raywuwei]

I know many people have mentioned a neurological connection to their celiac. I am wondering about a few things: A recent spike in my anxiety, the connection between gut inflammation and anxiety, and how much probiotic one should take. 

 

I have had anxiety since high school, but it had always been manageable with the right exercise and work load. But since early October my anxiety has been through the roof. To make things worse, I was fired within weeks of the stress event that sparked the anxiety. Now I am unemployed and unsure of how I will pay rent after this month. NOT helpful to my anxiety (though having time to take long walks, do crafts that calm me, and having the freedom to leave any event when I start to feel antsy is nice). 

 

So, I came across Open Original Shared Link about how probiotics can directly reduce anxiety by improving gut health.

 

I know that when I take my CeliAct multi-vitamins I feel way better in general. But I am not sure if I am ok to eat yogurt or drink kefir in addition to these probiotic loaded vitamins.

 

Does anyone know how much probiotic is enough, or how much is too much?

 

Also, does anyone else experience anxiety as a symptom of their celiac disease? I've been dx'd since 5/11/12 but I know I am still healing. I bought fish oil to try and help fight inflammation. Do you have any other food or vitamine tips that might help lessen anxiety?

 

(If you can't tell, I don't want to take any prescription drugs to deal with this business...)

[IrishHeart]

I believe that  probiotics are safe to take every day. I recently heard Dr.Fasano say that creating a health microbiome (i.e. the gut)

populated with "good guys" bacteria will benefit the whole body.And that would include the adrenals and the brain.

 

A B-12 or folate deficiency could possibly contribute to anxiety issues.

To answer your question, yes, I had uncharacteristic anxiety when I was

so very ill before diagnosis, but that resolved in time.

 

It started to lift after a few months and disappeared for good after my folate, B-12, D levels were raised (they were all low).

 

Have you tried a B-complex? (Country Life is G F )

 

Sorry about your job situation--- as I know this is very stressful. 

[dilettantesteph]

I am sorry to hear that you are dealing with this.  I had terrible anxiety as a celiac symptom, and it comes back readily when I am glutened.  I can't help myself.  I know that it is the glutening but still I freak out and overreact about everything.  I take a probiotic every day and still if I get glutened I get that terrible anxiety.  I am just coming out of a glutening period right now, and let me tell you it is so nice feeling my calm mind coming back again.  I wish that for you too.  It could be the need for healing, the need for a probiotic, or the need for a more careful diet.  I hope that you get it figured out.

[IrishHeart]

Steph raises a good point.

 

I,  too, can get "antsy and racy" if I am accidentally glutened. I can lose sleep, etc. and feel "off" and worrisome.

 

I wonder....have you recently eaten out, added in some new food or product? sometimes, a low dose trace of it can tweak us.

[NoGlutenCooties]

I've been taking a heavy-duty probiotic every day for years.  I have never heard any warnings about not taking probiotics every day, or over a long period of time, or anything along those lines.  However, I have heard that if you take too many of them they can cause a little gas and bloating - nothing harmful, just don't take as much.  I wouldn't worry too much about the probiotic that is in yogurt as far as it causing some sort of "overdose"... most of them are just the lactobacillus strain (although some use a different one that I can't remember right now). 

 

That said, I agree with IrishHeart - B Vitamins are awesome for combating anxiety and stress.

[gary'sgirl]

Our bodies are made up of trillions of bacteria, and adding to all the beneficial ones with good probiotics can only help your body do better.

The one thing you do have to be careful of is increasing gradually, because if you suddenly start taking a lot more probiotic foods/ or supplements you can have "die off"/detox of bad bacteria and toxins that happens more quickly than your body can handle. This can sometimes cause flu or allergy type symptoms as well as some others, so it's best to keep increasing intake, but do it slowly to get your body use to it.

 

I think that cultured/probiotic foods are a really great option for people with celiac/gluten sensitive, because along with getting nice and high doses of good bacteria, they also increase vitamins in the food and when studied cultured foods had a particular increase in all the B vitamins.

Kombucha has good levels of B12 I believe, and Milk Kefir has been studied specifically to have good increases in B vitamins - especially when made at home.

 

I hope you can find something that helps you very soon - it's quite hard to deal with anxiety. And losing a job makes it so much harder, I hope you find one quickly.

 

Best wishes to you.

[jackiejasbedt65]

I too have the anxiety and sometimes depression when I get poisoned by Gluten.  (That's the way I see getting "Glutened"  )

I was wondering if someone could recommend a brand of probiotics that work well?  There are so many out there...

[NoGlutenCooties]

I've had good luck with the Vitamin Shoppe brand - Open Original Shared Link

It has 10 different strains of bacteria.

Whichever brand you try, check the label to make sure that it doesn't say that it should be stored in the refridgerator.  I've seen ones that need to be refridgerated... but there they are... dying on the shelf of the store.