PREBIOTICS & ANXIETY

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of Surrey have found that four weeks of daily galactooligosaccharides (GOS) prebiotic intake can reduce anxiety levels and result in an overall improvement in wellbeing in young women. GOS are a type of non-digestible fibre with prebiotic activity found naturally in dairy products, beans, and certain root vegetables, and are also used in prebiotic supplements. Researchers studied a group of 64 healthy female participants with no current or previous clinical diagnoses of anxiety. Lead researcher Dr Kathrin Cohen Kadosh says: “This new research marks a significant step forward in that we were able to show that we can use a simple and safe food supplement such as prebiotics to improve both the abundance of beneficial gut bacteria in the gut and to improve mental health and wellbeing in young women.”