The US Govt. should investigate links between mental health disorders of Post-9/11 Vets; our gut biomes; and possible sources of exposure (burn pits). : Veterans

I am not any sort of scientific or medical expert. However, I have been reading a lot recently on the burgeoning science regarding the relationship between gut biomes and mental health disorders. My layman’s nutshell explanation: we are starting to discover and understand that people with certain psychological afflictions (ex.- depression) often/can have gut biomes that are out of whack with those of people with healthy brains. And there seem to be tendencies in which flora is out of whack, and what affliction someone might be suffering. I will post a link to an example study I came across at the bottom.

On top of this, we are starting see examples of people correcting these biome imbalances, and seeing mental health improvements as a result.

I have an interest in this because I have PTSD from my time overseas, as many other veterans I know. Baked into PTSD are often some of these same mental health afflictions: depression, anxiety, etc..

One of the great unknowns of our recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been burn pits. If you were on any sort of forward base or smaller outpost…..you probably lived pretty close to one and inhaled its contents on a daily basis. Smoke created by burning anything and everything: dead animals, food and waste, plastics, surplus ammunition. You name it, it gone thrown in the burn pit. How did inhaling this shit affect us? What bacteria did it introduce to our bodies? All of this occurring in highly undeveloped countries.

So I have no idea if there is a connection. All I am saying is….shouldn’t the US military and government check this out?

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00541/full?utm_source=S-TWT&utm_medium=SNET&utm_campaign=ECO_FPSYT_XXXXXXXX_auto-dlvrit&fbclid=IwAR0tstpZMu8dTCYUnD9MQjomHcMBlz1prqjININgHk-txLIyhCaGX9sATYA