As an IBS dietitian I am always reading up on the latest IBS research. On Instagram @AndreaHardyRD, I talk all about the gut brain axis and whether or not FODMAPs can influence it! Keep reading to learn more!
Do FODMAPs influence the gut-brain axis? 🧠
It turns out – yes! In our last post we discussed ways in which the gut-brain axis, the 2 way information highway between your brain and your gut, gets influenced by digestion.
In a new randomized, double blind crossover study, researchers gave healthy controls and those with IBS either a saline, glucose, or fructan solution infused into the gut. They then looked at:
✔️ symptoms
✔️ MR brain scan
✔️ Abdominal MRI
While those with IBS experienced similar digestive changes in motility and gas production to healthy controls, the fructans increased IBS symptoms of nausea, cramping, flatulence, and pain. 😣
In addition, the MR brain scans showed pain-related regions of the brain respond differently in those with IBS.
What is SO cool about this study is that it shows the direct impact digestion of certain foods has by way of the gut-brain axis. It also highlights ways in which the Low FODMAP diet improves symptoms in those with IBS. By reducing changes in motility and gas production from ‘normal digestion’ of FODMAPs, it reduces the signalling of ‘hey perceive digestion as pain’ by way of the gut-brain axis.
Pretty cool, huh? 😎
DOI: 10.1111/apt.16812
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