Gut Brain Axis: Gut, Memory, and Learning Connections

Your gut greatly influences memory, reasoning, and mood. Learn about the gut-brain axis and all-natural herbal support.

It may surprise you to learn that your gut plays a big role in cognitive functions like memory and learning. Your gut is your body’s largest microbiome. It also communicates with your brain in ways that affect how well you think.

Below, I’ll explain the intrinsic connection between the gut and the brain. I’ll also introduce the gut-brain axis – biochemical signaling that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system.

Major Depressive Disorder and the Gut-Brain Axis

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a widespread mental health condition known for causing persistent sadness and loss of interest in enjoyable activities. Over 350 million people worldwide suffer from MDD.

Current treatments include antidepressant medications that target serotonin levels in the brain. These treatments often take weeks to show results, can have side effects, and may not work for everyone. Because of these challenges, there’s a need to find new ways to treat MDD more effectively.

The connection between our gut bacteria and the brain — the gut-brain axis — is gaining attention as a factor in understanding depression. This gut-brain link is involved in inflammation in the brain, how we respond to stress, and even our behavior.

Some studies have found that people with depression have different types of bacteria in their gut compared to those without depression. For example, certain bacteria were more common in people with depression, while others were less common.

In one study depressed patients were given probiotics containing specific bacteria. Their depression symptoms improved. In similar animal studies, stress changed the types of bacteria in their guts. When these animals were given specific bacteria, it helped reduce their depression-like behaviors.

These findings suggest that the bacteria in our gut play a role in depression. Exploring this connection could lead to new ways to treat depression.

The Enteric Nervous System

Your gut has one hundred million neurons. In fact, the tissue lining your intestines contains an entire network of neurotransmitters. Known as the enteric nervous system (ENS), this network is connected to the brain by the vagus nerve, the largest of the 12 cranial nerves.

Your gut sends information to the brain through this network. This information can either impair or improve learning and memory.

The Gut: Your Second Brain

The gut gained its reputation as the second brain from Dr. Michael Gershon’s extraordinary book The Second Brain: A Groundbreaking New Understanding of Nervous Disorders of the Stomach and Intestine.

After the book’s publication, most researchers came to believe that the brain in our gut concerns itself with digestion processes rather than thinking, decision-making, or reasoning. However, recent discoveries have led to a realization that communication between the brain and the gut is actually a two-way street.

The Gut-Brain Axis: Gut Health Affects Cognition

Because of the gut-brain connection, your memory and learning are affected when the microflora in your microbiome are out of balance. An overgrowth of bad gut bacteria can result in headaches and an inability to concentrate. These states in turn lead to impaired memory, learning, and thinking.

Both mainstream and holistic health care providers recognize that specific herbs have phytochemicals that can affect memory and learning. Now we’re aware that these phytochemicals can affect the brain directly or indirectly via the gut-brain axis.

For instance, some all-natural herbs like Semen cuscutae have properties that help healthy microflora to grow in the gut. When your gut achieves that healthy balance of microflora, it allows messages and chemicals to be released to the big brain. The result is mental clarity, sharper memory, and improved learning.

All About Semen cuscutae

Semen cuscutae, also known as Chinese Dodder seed, is a nootropic herb. The seeds of the plant are rich in flavonoids, polysaccharides, alkaloids, and resin glycosides.

In addition to high flavonoid content, it has strong antioxidant properties. Many studies have found that it can help protect the brain, reduce brain inflammation, repair damaged nerve connections, and reduce oxidative stress.

Semen cuscutae is one of the handful of herbal extracts Linden Botanicals sells because recent scientific studies indicate that it may support brain health, the gut brain axis, central nervous system health, sexual health, and a healthy reproductive system.

All-natural Semen cuscutae herbal extract has neuroprotective properties. Semen cuscutae may help protect against chemically induced memory deficit.

It also shows anti-fatigue and anoxia tolerance effects.

Semen cuscutae Gut Brain Axis Support

Major depressive disorder is a mental illness that involves complicated causes and treatments. It’s linked to changes in the bacteria in our guts and inflammation in the brain.

All-natural Semen cuscutae herbal extract offers many health benefits. These benefits include protecting the brain, reducing brain inflammation, repairing damaged connections between nerve cells, and reducing harmful oxidative stress.

In a 2023 study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology, researchers studied the gut brain axis by looking at how Semen cuscutae affects depression-like behaviors caused by ongoing stress in mice.

They looked for changes in inflammation markers, like certain proteins and cell activation, and examined shifts in the gut bacteria using specific sequencing methods. They also used a powerful microscope to see how Semen cuscutae impacts the structure of nerve connections in the brain.

The study revealed that the Semen cuscutae extract contains chlorogenic acid and hypericin. When given to stressed mice, Semen cuscutae helped reduce depression-like symptoms. Semen cuscutae reduced the high levels of certain inflammation markers caused by stress. Also, cells in the brain that respond to inflammation increased with stress but decreased with Semen cuscutae.

Semen cuscutae also altered the balance of bacteria in the gut, favoring more Lactobacillus. Interestingly, certain types of Lactobacillus were linked to reduced depression symptoms and inflammation. Stress led to changes in nerve cell connections, but Semen cuscutae helped mitigate these changes.

This study discovered that Semen cuscutae may help improve depression-like symptoms and nerve connection issues caused by stress. This improvement seems to happen through the gut brain axis — a link between the gut bacteria and inflammation in the brain.

Chlorogenic acid and hypericin are likely the key ingredients in Semen cuscutae that give it its antidepressant effects.

Try Semen cuscutae Herbal Extract

Semen cuscutae offers a wide range of health benefits. It has adaptogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antioxidant, anti-senescence, cardio-protective, neuroprotective, immunomodulatory, neurotrophic, nootropic, and osteogenic properties. Recent research points to its neuroprotective properties and support for depression-like behaviors linked to the gut-brain axis.

There is good reason to believe that a lifestyle-related approach to optimal health will benefit from all-natural Semen cuscutae as a health supplement.

To learn more, read the Semen cuscutae FAQ.