The Way to Better Mental Health May Go Through Your Stomach
https://bcmp.hms.harvard.edu/news/getting-how-gut-bacterias-connection-depression
https://magazine.publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/gut-microbiome-and-brain
The Way to Better Mental Health May Go Through Your Stomach
https://bcmp.hms.harvard.edu/news/getting-how-gut-bacterias-connection-depression
https://magazine.publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/gut-microbiome-and-brain
Gut health is important and well worth talking about. Note, though, that the serotonin and dopamine produced there will never cross the blood–brain barrier, so the effects that the gut has on mental health (which are very real) come about differently.
How do drugs work then? Many are structurally similar to serotonin and are pretty effective when ingested (psilocybin, LSD, …).
They, or products of these drugs, do cross the BBB, and stimulate the same (sub)receptors as serotonin or dopamine.
Endorphin doesn’t cross the barrier but morphine does, we basically find ways to sneak stuff into the brain.