The gut microbiome has been shown to impact various facets of human health, including mental health. Studies have shown that populations with more agrarian lifestyles tend to have fewer chronic diseases and mental health issues than industrialized populations. A possible factor in these differences is the loss of co-evolved gut microbial taxa that has occurred with Westernization. This hypothesis, termed "Old Friends Hypothesis" suggests that the loss of certain gut microbes leads to immune dysregulation and increased chronic inflammation that contributes to development of cancers, cardiometabolic diseases and even neuroinflammation that can lead to negative behavioral and mental health outcomes. Other studies have shown that increasing the intake of plant foods may help increase diversity of the microbes in the gut and that this increased diversity could lead to better health outcomes in humans. The investigators propose to evaluate daily consumption of a drink consisting of a high diversity of plants (30 plant species) for four weeks on the diversity of the gut microbiome, biological signatures of inflammation, quality of life, sleep quality, and PTSD symptoms among persons with a diagnosis of PTSD. The investigators hypothesize that four weeks of daily consumption of this high plant diversity beverage (30 plant species) will increase gut microbiome ɑ-diversity, reduce markers of systemic inflammation, and improve PTSD symptom severity relative to daily consumption of a beverage containing only three plant species.
Age range
18 Years – 65 Years
Sex
ALL
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Changes in self-assessed severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms
Timeframe: From enrollment to the end of the 4-week intervention period.
Gut Microbiota Richness
Timeframe: From enrollment to the end of the 4-week intervention period.
Gut microbiota diversity
Timeframe: From enrollment to the end of the 4-week intervention period.
C-reactive protein in plasma
Timeframe: From enrollment to the end of the 4-week intervention period.