When trying to improve workers’ compensation outcomes, there is a mental health aspect to consider. According to a large epidemiological study conducted by the University of Michigan, 50% of the American population will struggle with a mental health problem at some point in their life.
This study also revealed that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death overall. World Health Organization (WHO) data found that 25% of all health-related disabilities are due to mental health issues and substance use, eight times more than disabilities caused by heart disease and 40 times more than cancer.
The workers’ compensation industry is not immune to this increase in mental health issues. Yet there is a shortage of mental health professionals, and in many cases access is not easy. However, amid this bleak landscape, signs of change are emerging that offer hope of unexpected help.
The gut-brain connection
Did you know that our gut can affect our mental health? The most recent branch of psychiatry, nutritional psychiatry, is taught and practiced at places like Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General, and focuses on how our diet affects our mental health. Our gut microbiome, the community of both harmful and helpful organisms that live in our guts, has a profound effect on mental health. In fact, it only takes two hours of psychological stress to completely change the bacteria in our intestines.
We have long known that our instincts reflect the emotions that arise in our brains; our language reflects it. When we talk about our stomach being “in knots”, a “heartbreaking experience” or the feeling of “butterflies in the stomach”, it is the emotion-generating circuits of our brain that are responsible. The emotional drama that plays out in our guts might not become a painful melodrama if we gave our gut bacteria a more nourishing diet.
The main reason why gut bacteria have such a profound effect on mental health is that they are responsible for making many brain chemicals necessary for good mental health. Dopamine, serotonin, glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are neurotransmitters critically important for the regulation of mood, memory and attention. Without enough “good bacteria” in our gut, their production is negatively affected.
As medicine has become more and more specialized, it has become easier to lose sight of the big picture – to look only at individual organs or body parts to determine what is wrong and needs to be addressed. be “repaired”. Today we learn that changes in mental health are a sign that one or more of the body’s connections to the brain are impaired, and it often starts in the gut.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, recognized this connection. He warned that “bad digestion is the root of all evil” and that “death is found in the intestines.” Granted, he was engaging in some hyperbole, but we now learn that he was making an important point.
When the brain and gut work well together, our bodies respond more effectively to challenges such as injuries. &
Part two of this series will cover the gut-brain axis and continue to delve deeper into the profound effect this relationship can have on healing from injury.