This cutting-edge book reveals how a healthy gut can drive psychological well-being, improve your mood, and combat common diseases including depression, anxiety, obesity, heart disease--even autism and Alzheimer's--all by nurturing your microbiome. Welcome to psychobiotics, the revolutionary new scientific field that treats the common ailments of our time. Leading medical researchers John F. Cryan and Ted Dinan, together with veteran journalist Scott C. Anderson, explain the operations of the all-critical gut-brain axis, revealing how overall well-being depends on a healthy population of intestinal bacteria. For the first time, Cryan and Dinan--who coined the term "psychobiotics"--Introduce the microbes essential to brain health and explain how changes in lifestyle and diet can keep them thriving. With useful charts naming bacteria species and laboratory-tested psychobiotic products, along with disease-by-disease accounts of the role a healthy gut plays in prevention and treatment, this comprehensive guide illuminates the essential steps you need to improve your life--all by maintaining a healthy gut"--