Our Quality of Life and Brain Development Reside in Our Gut

Genetics and our environment are now taking a back seat to what appears to hold sway over our mental health and our intellect, and it’s in our gut.

Research over many decades has been vigilantly trying to parse out what makes us who we are, how we feel, and what forges our intelligence, and now they seem to have found the key—our gut health.

No, it’s not as simple as eating “an apple a day,” but the correct route to health and happiness and what lies in our body’s internal workings make all the difference, with diet being the premier force. Naturing this font of health is now becoming one area of medicine, assuming new importance. Some are saying it’s the future of medicine and medical prescribing. It seems that every week, a discovery is made about our gut and its incredible involvement in all aspects of our lives.

Individuals with social anxiety are reported to be more likely to be bullied, more likely to drop out of school early, and more likely to have inferior credentials, fewer friends, more likely to be divorced, less likely to get married, and have fewer children. They also report higher rates of tardiness and lower performance in the workplace. Overall, it is pervasive and depletes the joy from their lives—joy that might be more easily managed, according to new research.