A Safe, Natural Solution to Test Anxiety
Test anxiety is ridiculously common, preventing kids from attaining their best results. There may be a safe and ridiculously simple natural solution.
Test anxiety is rampant. 20%-40% of college students suffer from it. Test anxiety can affect your performance and, when extended, can lead to depression and anxiety.
Surprisingly, recent research has highlighted probiotics for anxiety, stress and depression. A recent meta-analysis of 19 double-blind studies established that probiotics significantly improve depression (Psychiatry Res 2019 Sep 17:112568). Probiotics also significant improve anxiety (Gut Microbes 2011;2:256-61), including in college students. When healthy college students took probiotics in a double-blind study, they had improvement in panic attacks, anxiety, worrying and ability to regulate negative moods (J Affect Disord 2019 Jun 1 ;252:271-277). New double-blind research has also shown that probiotics significantly improve stress (Benef Microbes 2019 Apr 19;10(4):355-373). It turns out that there is an intriguing link between the gut and the brain and between bacteria in your gut and our mental health. Some researchers are now referring to this as the “microbiota-gut-brain axis.”
So, what happens when you give college students with test anxiety probiotics? They get better!
Sixty students with test anxiety who were studying for an exam were given either a placebo or probiotic for 3 weeks. The probiotic was Lactobacillus plantarum.
A group of 30 students who do not suffer from test anxiety were included as controls. As they studied, their anxiety and depression scores went up dramatically, meaning that even non-anxious students experience anxiety during exams. Their anxiety scores went from 4.07 to 7.63, and their depression scores went from 2.83 to 6.83.
What happened to the anxious kids? When they were given a placebo, their scores got worse. Their anxiety scores increased from 13.27 to 15.3, and their depression scores went from 12.23 to 14.07. When they were given the probiotic, though, the opposite happened. Only in the probiotic group, scores improved. Anxiety dropped from 13.93 to 10.57; depression dropped from 12.37 to 8.17.
The probiotic group was also the only one to experience significant improvements in insomnia.
In this very promising study, probiotics passed the test for test anxiety.
Front Immunol. 2023; 14: 1158137
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The Natural Path is intended for educational purposes only and is in no way intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment. For health problems, consult a qualified health practitioner for a comprehensive program.