Dr. Lisa Zielbauer, PharmD, helps to build the next chapter in the 'Pharmacists Focused on Mental Health' podcast series. Dr. Z shares her personal story as she struggles with depression and talks about her background with mental health and family connections to other mental health conditions.  Scientists are exploring evidence that major depression may in part be a gut feeling, orchestrated by the microbiome—trillions of microorganisms living in and around our bodies, which influence our health and well-being. Researchers have discovered that the microbial menagerie living in our digestive tract may help regulate brain function, including mental health. Recent findings by scientists in the U.S., Europe and China are linking our feelings of stress, anxiety and severe depression to disturbances among hundreds of microbe species living in our gut that some researchers have started calling the psychobiome. Conversely, other bacteria in the gut appear to produce some of the same substances used by doctors to treat depression and may naturally play a role in maintaining our emotional balance. Guest: Lisa Zielbauer, PharmD | Functional Medicine Pharmacist Founder & CEO, Root Cause Rx Connect with me on: Instagram  References:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/health/microbiome-brain-behavior-dementia.html  https://www.wsj.com/articles/depression-bacteria-in-your-gut-may-have-caused-itor-made-you-healthier-11608565953 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31913980/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33268363/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30322864/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.