Great find, Julie! Simply remarkable paper. Beyond outstanding synthesis of otherwise disparate information into a coherent whole that is, as others have stated, exceptionally well written. The paper sets a new standard in my book. Love the concluding paragraph so pasting in directly here for ease of access by others:
We tend to think of ourselves as human beings and human beings only: Yet 38 trillion microbes (Sender, Fuchs, & Milo, 2016), distributed into at least 2,172 known species (Hugon et al., 2015), populate each of us in places as supremely personal as our mouth, armpits, gut, genitals—and brain (Branton et al., 2013). It is a sobering thought that we house at least as many foreign as human cells (Sender et al., 2016), and those cells that we consider human stem from archaea and bacteria. With the single exception of red blood cells, which got rid of their nucleus too, each of these “human” cells is itself densely inhabited by direct descendants of bacteria in the form of mitochondria. They have made themselves indispensable and this is good and bad news. On the one hand, mitochondria make our mental health—besides furnishing the energy for the brain to function at all, they enable synaptic plasticity, produce hormones and signaling molecules, dish neurotransmitters out and rein neurotransmitters in. On the other, they also break it—even their proper operation corrodes our brain, while their malfunctioning is associated with cognitive deficits, intellectual disabilities, neurodegenerative disorders, and mental illness. Whether as victims or as perpetrators, mitochondria are right in the middle of virtually all human afflictions. They still look a little like their bacterial forefathers and still retain a bit of independence from us. But because of the deal they struck with archaea 2 billion years ago, their health is now entwined with ours. So, to help get the best out of us as humans, we may actually want to do what is best for our bacteria-like components: exercise, sleep, spend time in the sun, eat well, and meditate.
I have "followed" both authors on Researchgate to keep up with other fine work they may produce. Next up, check out this interesting paper making the integrated argument for what for me was one of the first steps of my own journey:
Bread and Other Edible Agents of Mental Disease
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... al_Disease
Abstract
Perhaps because gastroenterology, immunology, toxicology, and the nutrition and agricultural sciences are outside of their competence and responsibility, psychologists and psychiatrists typically fail to appreciate the impact that food can have on their patients’ condition. Here we attempt to help correct this situation by reviewing, in non-technical, plain English, how cereal grains—the world’s most abundant food source—can affect human behavior and mental health. We present the implications for the psychological sciences of the findings that, in all of us, bread (1) makes the gut more permeable and can thus encourage the migration of food particles to sites where they are not expected, prompting the immune system to attack both these particles and brain-relevant substances that resemble them, and (2) releases opioid-like compounds, capable of causing mental derangement if they make it to the brain. A grain-free diet, although difficult to maintain (especially for those that need it the most), could improve the mental health of many and be a complete cure for others.
Russ
