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Depression Quote by Ed Yong

““Drinking lots of alcohol makes the gut leakier, allowing microbes to more readily influence the brain. Could that help to explain why alcoholics often experience depression or anxiety? Our diet reshapes the microbes in our gut, could those changes ripple out to affect our minds? The gut microbiome becomes less stable in old age-could that contribute to the rise of brain disease in the elderly? And could our microbes manipulate our food cravings in the first place? If you reach for a burger or a chocolate bar what exactly is pushing that hand forward?””

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More by Ed Yong

“No, the algae were making something that killed the corals via their own microbes. That something turned out to be dissolved organic carbon (DOC); essentially, sugars and carbohydrates in the water. When algae get too numerous on a reef they make huge amounts of DOC and create a banquet for coral microbes. These algal sugars would normally flow up the…

“Patterson died in 2014 but Mazmanian is now carrying on his friend's work. His long-term goal is to develop a bacterium that people can swallow to control some of the more difficult symptoms of autism. That might be B-frag: it certainly worked well in the mice, and happens to be the most heavily depleted microbe in the guts of people…

“Mucus is made from giant molecules called mucins, each consisting of a central protein backbone with thousands of sugar molecules branching off it. These sugars allow individual mucins to become entangled, forming a dense, nearly impenetrable thicket – a Great Wall of Mucus that stops wayward microbes from penetrating deeper into the body. And if that wasn’t deterrent enough, the…

“The Earth is 4.54 billion years old. A span of time that big is too mind-boggling to comprehend, so let’s collapse the planet’s entire history into a single calendar year.1 Right now, as you’re reading this page, it is 31st December, just before the stroke of midnight. (Thankfully, fireworks were invented nine seconds ago.) Humans have only existed for the…

“Many of the plants that the spider mite targets can release hydrogen cyanide when their tissues are breached. This substance is extraordinarily inimical to life. Exterminators have poisoned rats with it. Whalers added it to their harpoons. The Nazis used it in concentration camps. But the spider mite is impervious. One of its genes can make an enzyme that converts…

“When microbiologists first started cataloguing the human microbiome in its entirety they hoped to discover a "core" microbiome: a group of species that everyone shares. It's now debatable if that core exists. Some species are common, but none is everywhere. If there is a core, it exists at the level of functions, not organisms. There are certain jobs, like digesting…

“Most animals can't tap into these open-source adaptations deliberately. The flies didn't seek out Spiroplasma to solve their worm problem. Woodrats didn't go looking for the creosote-defusing microbes so they could widen their diet. They must rely on luck to endow them with the right partners. But we humans aren't so restricted. We are innovators, planners, and problem-solvers. And we…

“Howler monkeys all defecate at the same time.”

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“The variations that exist between the body parts dwarf those that exist between people. Put simply, the bacteria on your forearm are more similar…

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“It earns its keep. As it digests HMOs, B. infantis releases short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that feed an infant's gut cells - so while mothers nourish this microbe, the microbe in turn nourishes the baby. Through direct contact, B. Infantis also encourages gut cells to make adhesive proteins that seal the gaps between them, and anti-inflammatory molecules that calibrate the…

“When Hamiltonella's genome was sequenced, the real reason behind the bacterium's protective powers became apparent: about half of its DNA actually belonged to a virus. It was a phage - one of those spindly-legged, mucus-loving viruses that we met before. They typically kill bacteria by reproducing inside them and bursting fatally outward. But they can also opt for a more…

“For one group of wasps, the braconids, transferred genes have enabled a bizarre form of pest control. The females of these wasps lay their eggs in still-living caterpillars, which their young then devour alive. To give the grubs a hand, the females also inject the caterpillars with viruses, which suppress their immune systems. These are called bracoviruses, and they arent'…

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“Shorter believes that psychosomatic illnesses (such as leg paralysis at the turn of the twentieth century or multiple personality disorder at the turn of the twenty-first) are examples of the unconscious mind attempting to speak in a language of emotional distress that will be understood in its time. People at a given moment in history in need of expressing their…

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

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Repression will provoke rebellion.

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