Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a stress-related disorder that shows up after experiencing a painful event that may or may not involve a real or professed danger. A new study relates PTSD with diet, suggesting nutrition plays an important role to determine the risk and severity of PTSD symptoms especially the fiber intake.
This study reveals that 45 years to 85 years old Canadians were found less susceptible to PTSD signs if their dietary fiber intake was 2-3 sources per day. This link between fiber and post-traumatic stress syndrome is new and it is likely to be true. Health experts explain various communication networks taking place inside the gut which directly link with the brain using some short-chain fatty acids (also called SCFAs). These SCFAs are usually the byproducts created from the fermentation caused by bacteria inside the gut.
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SCFAs produced inside the colon can initiate communication thus affecting the function and reaction of the brain. There are other factors linked with diet too which may increase the chances of PTSD such as eating chocolate, sugary treats, pules, grains, or nuts every day.
These findings imply that increased use of these foods is correlated with PTSD symptoms which is rather unexpected.
This study used the data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. There were nearly 27,211 individuals from the ages of 45 to 85 years. At least 1,323 were confirmed to have PTSD.
This research team also reviewed the link between PTSD and various other factors including age, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, gender, health, marital status among many others. Out of all these, poverty shared the strongest link with post-traumatic stress disorder. people who shared their household income to be less than $20,000 annually were more likely to experience PTSD symptoms.
There is no information about how and why post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects work performance, which may lead to poverty or induces stress which makes poverty-linked PTSD even worse.
They also found that women are twice more likely to experience PTSD as compared to men. This ratio was found to be 6.9%: 3.9% where the latter represents men with PTSD. People who were divorced, separated, or widowed were also at double risk of suffering from PTSD disorder (8.8%: 4.4%) in comparison to those who were in relation or married.
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Age also came up with an important factor with PTSD symptoms as people in their late middle ages were highly probable to experience PTSD symptoms. This risk was lowest in older adults (75 years and older).
These findings are similar to a previous study that reported that PTSD is more common in middle-aged adults. It stated that women in their 50s and men who are in their 40s often experience PTSD symptoms.
Lastly, most PTSD patients were those who had at least two underlying health conditions or additional signs, for example, chronic pain, smoking, alcohol use. It is also similar to the results from previous studies which reveal that PTSD patients are highly susceptible to cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndromes, and some musculoskeletal diseases.
