What goes on in the gut microbiome (illustrated) may affect brain health THOM LEACH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The Immune Mind
Monty Lyman (Torva)
At university, I had two roommates with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a painful condition affecting the digestive system. Both also had anxiety. But there was a key difference between them that stuck with me. While one found IBS treatments attenuated her anxiety, the other found relief through the opposite approach: her stomach pain only eased after seeing a psychiatrist. It was an astonishing lesson for me in the complexity of the relationship between body and mind.
This intricate…
