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Hey everyone, this is Dr. Roo Show. Welcome back for more updates on probiotic research. And boys, there are a whole lot we can learn. In this case, a number of studies I'd like to share with you on probiotics for

brain health, metabolic health, body composition, and infection. We'll touch on cognition,

depression, autism, liver health, blood pressure, weight loss, muscle mass, COVID-19, and oral

dysbiosis. Already, let's jump in and start with brain health and specifically cognition,

a randomized control trial in 43 individuals who had major depression and a degree of

cognitive impairment. And remember that many of the centers in the brain, specifically within

the limbic system, which includes hippocampus, thalamus, hypothylamus, and amygdala are often overactivated

in depression and or when memory is impaired. So in this trial, they administered either

probiotic or placebo, and the probiotic was visbiome, essentially a blend of lactobacillus and bifidothera bacterium, at a high dose,

900 billion per day, which is more than most people will need, but nevertheless, that's what they did.

After one month, they found improvements in short-term memory. However, no improvement in long-term

memory. Short-term memory, aka working memory, is the ability to hold data

in your mind for a short-term. It might be a new name. It might be a grocery list. It might be when

you're trying to solve a problem and you're holding multiple pieces of data in your mind looking for a

solution. So while long-term memory is nice, short-term memory also has a lot of applicability.

Now, what is so fascinating and so elegant about this study in particular, they also looked at hippocampal activity through functional MRI.

And here is what they found.

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