Stress may damage gut bacteria as much as junk food

Stress is something which is called the member of every family especially women pay more attention to it. Do you know that stress can damage your gut health as much as eating junk food?
In an experimental study on both male and female mice have shown that female mice who were under stress experienced changes in microbial community of their gut as that of eating fats in their diets whereas male mice seems to got no changes in their guts. It indicates that stress effects on gut are very sex specific.
According to Dr Iqbal Afridi, the President of Pakistan Psychiatric Society and the Head of Department of Psychiatry at Jinnah Post Medical Complex, Pakistan is one of the vulnerable countries where stress, anxiety and depression are at highest level. Having 200 million population, one out of three are suffering from these curable diseases.
Bridgewater and her colleagues tested both male and female mice. Half of male and half of female mice were fed on high fat diets for 16 weeks, others were given standard chow diet. After 16 weeks, the entire group of mice was subjected to mild stress once or twice per day for a total of 18 days. Stressors included a forced swim in cold water, damp bedding, and predator sounds and smells. Their fecal samples were analyzed before and after stress exposure to determine the change in microbial community of gut.