In 2017, one study reported that one in six Americans takes an SSRI for a mental illness every day. That was nearly two years ago – would you surmise that that number has gone up or down?

Even if that number stayed exactly the same, that’s a heavy load of the population taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. 

Since the gut’s microbiota is responsible for 95% of the body’s serotonin production, researchers have gotten curious recently about the effect of taking SSRIs on the gut’s bacteria population. 

Since the gut is born sterile, the diverse collection of bacterial species living in the gut is heavily influenced by the bacteria in our environments, in the food we eat, the air we breathe, and of course, in the medication we take.