New Insights on Gut Permeability and Depression

Depression and 'leaky gut' form dangerous feedback loop, warn researchers

Researchers have uncovered another contributing factor to depression—gut permeability. Researchers have found teenage girls with a leaky gut, which is when toxins or bacteria can leak through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream, were more likely to be depressed.TheVisualsYouNeed/Shutterstock

If you know what depression feels like—the brain clouding, the flat moods, the tiredness—you’re not alone. Over 300 million people around the world have depression, and yet there’s a lot that we still don’t quite understand.

Thankfully, the medical field is developing some new insights that just might help us understand depression better. In a new 2019 study, researchers decided to examine the potential mechanisms of major depressive disorder in teenage girls and found some evidence that could help us better understand exactly how gut permeability (leaky gut) can lead to inflammation, which in turn, leads to depression.

New Insight into Leaky Gut and Depression

In this 2019 study, Baylor College of Medicine researchers are directly looking at gut permeability and major depressive disorder, a study that is the first of its kind.