| Sumario: | In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in conceptual thinking about health and disease, including disorders of the central nervous system. A growing body of literature has demonstrated bidirectional signalling between the brain and the gut microbiome involving the neural, endocrine, and immune pathways. This has become known as the gut-brain axis. Psychological and physical stressors can affect the composition and activity of the gut microbiome, which not only is implicated in disorders of the gut like irritable bowel syndrome, but also appears to play a role in the regulation of emotion, mood, behaviour, attention, and cognition. Studies on neurodevelopmental disorders have shown a relationship between gut dysbiosis and risk of developing disorders like ADHD and autism. As optometrists who understand that the eye is an organ that cannot be viewed in isolation, we are well placed to understand that any changes affecting the neural pathways will also have an impact on how we visually perceive the world.
|
|---|