Event Details
Title: “The Farm Effect: Implications of Diverse Microbial Exposures for Mental Health”
Presenter: Christopher Lowry, PhD
Associate Professor of Integrative Physiology, Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Date/Time: Tuesday, July 11th* @ 8:00-9:00am US ET via Zoom.
*Note: 2nd week of July to avoid conflict with US Independence Day on July 4.
Cost: Free. CME credit available. Please email your name, degree title and institution if applicable to [email protected] during the event to claim credit.
Presentation Description
A number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain the increasing prevalence of inflammatory disease in modern urban societies, including the hygiene hypothesis, the “Old Friends” hypothesis, the biodiversity hypothesis, and the disappearing microbiota hypothesis. The protective effect of growing up on a farm with farm animals on allergic asthma later in life is so highly replicated, it is now simply called “the Farm Effect”. What these hypothetical frameworks have in common is reduced exposure to diverse microbial environments that normally function to induce immunoregulation in modern urban environments and modern industrialized societies.
In this presentation, Dr. Lowry will explore how the Farm Effect may also be relevant to risk of developing stress related psychiatric disorders, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and trauma- and stressor related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These data argue both in favor of nature as medicine, including nature prescriptions for health, and use of natural products to promote stress resilience.
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Biography
Christopher A. Lowry, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience, and Center for Microbial Exploration at the University of Colorado Boulder, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) and Center for Neuroscience, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, a Principal Investigator in the Department of Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System, VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, & Clinical Center (MIRECC), director of the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Laboratory at CU Boulder, and Co-Director of the Military and Veteran Microbiome Consortium for Research and Education (MVM-CoRE). Dr. Lowry’s research program focuses on understanding stress-related physiology and behavior with an emphasis on the microbiome-gut-brain axis, designed to lead to novel, microbiome-based interventions for the prevention of anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Resources
Flux MC, Lowry CA (2020) Finding intestinal fortitude: Integrating the microbiome into a holistic view of depression mechanisms, treatment, and resilience. Neurobiol Dis 135:104578.
Flux MC, Lowry CA (2023) Inflammation as a mediator of stress-related psychiatric disorders. In: Neurobiology of Brain Disorders: Biological Basis of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders (Zigmond MJ, Wiley CA, Chesselet M-F, eds), pp 885-911. Academic Press, Elsevier.
TEDxMileHigh: Plants, the microbiome, and mental health | Christopher A. Lowry | February 1, 2021