Reversing memory loss via gut-brain communication(med.stanford.edu)
122 points by mustaphah 4 hours ago | 32 comments
- inanutshellus 3 hours agoEveryone's "poo-pooing" the article because the title doesn't mention mice, but, FWIW, stories of gut biota affecting humans behavior have been documented for a while.
Memory gain is noteworthy, which is the article's "wow" factor, but everyone's just knee-jerk smirking so ... here's a few random articles to gross you out about the wild world of trading microbiota and, for better or worse, changing your personality:
Crazy, right?* "My butt made me crave candy."[1] * "Gee, I'm not bipolar anymore thanks to my husband's butt juice infusion."[2][1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-behavioral-microbiome/202404/hacking-an-individuals-personality-through-their-gut-contents [2] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-28/faecal-microbiota-transplant-credited-with-curing-bipolar/105541522[-]- zinkem 31 minutes agoI believe this research is totally true-- I had a lot of memories come back after
1. I stopped drinking heavily and using other drugs, i.e. marijuana
2. managed my diet to avoid heartburn without medication
3. schedule my meals so it was easier to sleep at night (always eat something for breakfast when I wake up)
I did not need any "poo infusion" or anything.
I had a gal bladder removal that didn't fix the problems the doctors thought it would and got a lot smarter about the kinds and variety of food I eat.
I believe alcohol in particular was really screwing up my gut biome and entire digestive system.
[-]- y-curious 16 minutes agoWhat did you do for heartburn? Just looking for ideas. I noticed reducing gluten helped me personally a lot
- hbcondo714 2 hours agoI would recommend the site https://gutbrainaxistherapeutics.com for learning more about Microbiota Transplant Therapy (MTT) and its opportunities, especially for Autism and Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome.[-]
- y-curious 11 minutes agoI’ll dig in more but my first question when I see this: who are the donors exactly? Like who decides what the ideal gut microbiome is and that John Doe is the guy to provide his fecal matter to the masses?
- jimkleiber 1 hour agoThere was a South Park episode about this years ago where everyone was trying to get it from Tom Brady.
- 1shooner 2 hours agoThis seems to be a recent anti-science meme to dismiss studies that use mouse models. I'm sure there is an interesting line of discussion about the strengths and limits of those models, but that's probably a complex, nuanced thread to pull, not something you blow off with a hand-waving internet comment.[-]
- inanutshellus 2 hours agoTo some degree the other posts are just pointing out the misleading "assumed protagonist" of the title (which doesn't mention mice) but I was surprised to see that the majority of posts boiled down to "eek! mice!"
- znpy 1 hour agoI bet it started with people trying to 1-up other commenters via the usual “achtually…” and then proceeding with the “in mice” notice.
- mustaphah 2 hours agoYeah, it's a mouse study, but there are tons of human studies backing the whole gut-brain connection. There are even a bunch of books on it [1][2].
What's really cool is that the paper used low-dose capsaicin (just 5 μg/kg injected), and it completely restored hippocampal FOS activity and memory in older mice. Basically, that's the same stuff you get in cayenne pepper supplements - pretty easy to get your hands on.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28837738-the-mind-gut-co...
[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35210457-the-psychobioti...
- seethishat 2 hours agoIMO people should eat more fiber. A lot more fiber. It cleans the gut, the liver, absorbs cholesterol, slows insulin response and makes you feel full longer. The microbes in our guts need it to function.
Rather than jumping from one fad diet to another, just eat what you like and be sure to get a lot of fiber each day.
[-]- behehebd 2 minutes agoTo do this eat stuff that grows and not further processed.
- memonkey 1 hour agoThe post is about a scientific study and your response is your opinion with nothing else to back it up?[-]
- igleria 1 hour agothey IMO are trying to help by giving good ideas to keep a healthy gut. Add that to the study and at least to me, it´s a nice idea.
btw people, do drink water to keep up with the fiber. Otherwise it might not help.
- jstanley 2 hours ago> eat what you like and be sure to get a lot of fiber each day
Sure sounds like another fad diet.
[-]- lelele 30 minutes ago> Sure sounds like another fad diet.
Yeah! A fad lasting millions of years of human evolution, however.
- nomel 1 hour agoThe charitable interpretation is "just eat more fiber, regardless of the rest"
- vablings 1 hour agoThis has been the recommendation for general health for as long as I have been alive. Fiber is really important and there are plenty of easy healthy options that are cheap, unlike the astroturfed beef checkoff primal diet
- kseniamorph 12 minutes agoi like how this research (and others related) kind of supports the idea that free will might be lacking. I still keep a pinch of skepticism about this idea, understanding that it's just a concept. But personally i like it, because it even fells a bit relieving... not to say that it helps you abandon responsibility, but it makes your stance on life easier, and pushes you not to blame yourself too much for your weaknesses.
- hi_hi 37 minutes agoFor those who may be interested in learning more about the gut and how it affects your body and brain, this is a great, accessible, read
https://www.amazon.com/Gut-inside-story-bodys-under-rated/dp...
Also, while we're on the topic, if you ever find your self at the other end of the world in Tasmania, I highly recommend a visit to the MONA museum, which houses the Poo Machine.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-07/mona-poo-machine-join...
- behehebd 4 minutes agoSay the line HN!
- nothrowaways 59 minutes ago> They showed that colonizing the guts of young mice with this bacterial species inhibited their performance on the object recognition and maze escape tasks, and that this deficit correlated with a reduction of activity in the hippocampus.
- riazrizvi 1 hour agoGreat info. This is one of those things that it is much faster for an individual to take into their own hands to prove out, rather than waiting for the system to provide us with an answer. Too many decision makers who are unlikely to all be aligned with our own individual interests.
- dharmatech 56 minutes agoThe book
"Why Isn't My Brain Working?"
by Datis Kharrazian
published in 2014 talked about this over a decade ago.
- steve1977 3 hours ago[flagged][-]
- j45 3 hours agoin mice is clearly in the subhead.
The connection between gut-brain has been studied in humans, as well as the effect of diet and gut bacteria on brain functions.
[-]- vidarh 3 hours agoAnd in this case it sounds like the pathway to determining if this has an effect in humans as well might be relatively short given there is a pool of patients receiving vagus nerve stimulation for other things that might provide data.[-]
- j45 2 hours agoVagus Nerve treatments also exist as well and are highly observable.
- fnord77 3 hours ago... in mice. So if any of this held in humans, I think you'd see reversal of old-age memory problems in people treated with antibiotics that kill Parabacteroides goldsteinii.
As far as I know, no such effect has been observed.
And this article claims inflamation from that strain, the NIH claims otherwise: "Parabacteroides goldsteinii is a next-generation probiotic gut bacterium with significant anti-inflammatory and metabolic benefits, often reduced in obese or diseased states. "
[-]- vidarh 3 hours agoIt's possible the specifics are different but that the overall idea still could work for humans. It seems worth at least exploring.
- theusus 3 hours agoMice mice mice. Tell me when you test on humans
- maxall4 3 hours agoI smell bad data. This sounds too good to be true and most studies of this kind have turned out to be false a few years down the line.
Edit: one of many examples: https://www.science.org/content/article/journal-retracts-inf...
[-]- IshKebab 2 hours agoIt doesn't seem to link to any data at all so we can't check, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they used the "standard" P=0.05.
I think for something this unexpected you'd want a much lower P.