Serotonin + Gut-Health

What is Serotonin?

Serotonin functions as both a neurotransmitter and a hormone. It’s often called the ‘feel good’ hormone. It’s responsible for regulating our mood, supporting normal bowel movements and good sleep.

Signs of low Serotonin

When serotonin is imbalanced, we can experience:

• anxiety

• depression

• feeling worried or fearful

• afternoon sugar cravings

• PMS

• eating problems

• digestive issues

• irritability

• excess self-criticism

• insomnia or poor sleep

• anger, rage + aggression

• OCD symptoms + ruminating thoughts

• winter blues

• headaches/migraines

• panic attacks

• digestive problems

How our Gut-Health Affects Serotonin

Did you know that the majority of our serotonin is made in our digestive tract? It’s made by our good gut bacteria, so antibiotic use or things like SIBO and IBS can mean we have less serotonin-making bacteria on board.

Only about 2% of serotonin is found in the brain, and about 95% is found in our gut. This is a pretty big deal, because this means that when our microbiome is balanced and healthy, it can produce wonderful amounts of serotonin (and other neurotransmitters like dopamine and GABA!).

However, if there are high levels of pathogenic bacterial strains in the gut, the body may produce less of these mood-modulating neurotransmitters and more stress hormones. Gut-healing is one of the main focuses in my practice, because our gut-health is such a vital piece of our mood-health.

“Serotonin and other neurotransmitters travel from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve. This is the body’s longest nerve that emerges directly from the brain. Chemical signals travel both from the gut to the brain and vice versa. Because of this, those with gut issues are at a higher risk of mood imbalances, anxiety, and depression.” -Dr. Amy Meyers, amymyersmd.com

6 Ways to Support Balanced Serotonin:

Supplement Sources

Tryptophan and 5-HTP are the amino-acid precursors to serotonin. You can take either tryptophan or 5-HTP as supplements to help your body have the raw material needed to make serotonin.

I use amino acid therapy with my clients to rebuild neurotransmitter levels when they’re depleted. It’s an incredible type of therapy that uses food-based amino acids in a targeted way to bring quick relief (normally people start to feel the benefits right away if it’s the correct amino acid/dose!)

A typical starting dose of tryptophan is 250-500mg. For 5-HTP, 50-150mg can be used to start with. Check out amino acid pioneer Trudy Scott’s tryptophan blog for her dosing instructions and how to do an amino acid trial to figure out the correct dose for you.

*Always start at the lowest dose and always take 4-6 hours away from medication. Have your prescribing doctor sign off on taking these supplements first if you’re taking mood medications like SSRI’s. If you have any unpleasant effects, just take 1,000mg vitamin C. This works to halt any good/unpleasant effects of all of the amino acids.

Food Sources

Foods rich in tryptophan are:

• turkey

• fish

• chicken

• pumpkin seeds

• apples

• bananas

Sunlight

Getting sunlight exposure daily (try eating your breakfast or lunch outside everyday!) also really supports serotonin levels. Studies have shown that the body’s serotonin levels increase with sunlight exposure- which I think it pretty darn cool!

Movement

Daily movement like walking, yoga or dancing are all easy ways to modulate our body’s production of serotonin, because exercise helps boost serotonin and endorphin production.

Gut Lining-Support

Gut-lining support is important because the lining of the intestines are vital for nutrient-absorption. Without absorption we aren’t able to use the important mood-boosting foods and nutrients we eat. I like to include foods rich in l-glutamine to help heal and seal the intestinal lining. Here are a few favorites:

• Bone Broth

• Collagen

• Gelatin

• L-Glutamine powder like ‘Leaky Gut Revive’ (you can purchase below)
  

Probiotic-Rich Foods

Finally, balancing our microbiome by caring for our gut (think probiotics and probiotic-rich fermented foods) is key to providing the right balance of beneficial serotonin-supporting bacteria. Consider taking a soil-based probiotic like MegaSpore (purchase below) and adding 1 serving a day of these probiotic-rich foods:

• Kimchi

• Kombucha

• Organic Miso

• Sauerkraut (Refrigerated)

• Raw Cacao nibs

  
  

Balancing our moods can be as simple as balancing our gut-health! If you would like to learn how to optimize your own moods, just book with me here!

Below are the products I mentioned in this post:

references:

Serotonin questionnaire adapted from Trudy Scott’s book “The Anti-Anxiety Food Solution“ and Dr. Aimie’s Biology of Trauma, Stress and Stress Hormones course materials