If you feel like your gut has a mind of its own, it’s because it does. The billions of neurotransmitters in your intestine are of the same type as those in your brain and house the Enteric Nervous System. The gut is capable of a level of independent intelligence equal to that of your dog.
Does that mean our stomachs can be trained?
It’s kind of a funny idea, but it’s one that’s currently being explored. Some scientists hypothesize that we can treat stomach pain using hypnosis — essentially curing our tummies by talking to them.
The gut is host to 100,000 billion bacteria. When researchers mapped the DNA of one study participants’ microbiomes, they first reported that each of us falls into one of 3 enterotypes.
Subsequent research has called this limited number and the specific characteristics within each type into question. Things may be a bit more nuanced and complicated than originally indicated. Research continues and will bring a clearer picture over time.
We do know that the gut communicates with the brain via the vegas nerve and can affect our emotions. That could be why it feels like the gut has a mind of its own that sometimes controls us.
Ninety-five percent of the seratonin in our bodies is produced in the gut where it regulates the immune system and sets the pace for intestinal transit. Seratonin is also released into the bloodstream acting on the hypothalamus and registering in the upper brain as a sense of well-being.
With conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in which there is no observable organic malfunction, it is theorized that there could be a problem between brain and gut communication. One of the brains may send the wrong message or a message may be misinterpreted resulting in the symptoms experienced.
Learning more about this possible process may lead to innovative treatments for the 1 in 10 of us who suffer from IBS. It also has potential benefit for those who have become hypervigilant as a result of trauma.
An examination of the microbiome can increasingly assist in diagnosis and treatment of disease. The microbiome can show a propensity for Type II diabetes, heart disease, and liver disease and may influence obesity. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) show an increase in pro-inflammatory molecules and a decrease in inflammatory dampening bacteria. Altering microbial composition could possibly be used to reduce inflammation or calm down the immune system.
Researchers have successfully diagnosed Parkinson’s disease through intestinal biopsy paving the way for additional exploration of the possibility that the gut and brain share diseases. This could be key to a greater understanding of autism spectrum disorders and alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Michael Gershon, Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center who is sometimes referred to as the father of neurogastroenterology has, along with Dr. Anne Gershon, demonstrated that shingles can occur in enteric neurons and may be the cause of several gastrointestinal disorders currently of unknown origin.
It’s a little unclear whether the DNA of a microbiome is a set entity that changes slowly over time or whether researchers were simply mapping a DNA moment in a constantly changing microbiota. Studies have shown that the microbiota can change within one day with a change in diet.
That sounds like great news to me! It’s possible that a change in diet could bring symptom relief fairly quickly once we better understand what in the diet needs to be altered.
The possibilities are huge and the research has just begun. Changing the microbiome through diet, prebiotics, and probiotics may have a much greater effect in preventing and reducing disease than we previously believed. Diet may not just be fuel to keep the body strong, it may be real medicine that can be used to reduce inflammation, revise autoimmune response, and change the messages transmitted from the gut to the brain.
Knowing that my gut has a mind of its own sounds like relief to my upper brain!
https://www.pathology.columbia.edu/profile/michael-d-gershon-md
http://sales.arte.tv/fiche/3707/VENTRE__NOTRE_DEUXIEME_CERVEAU__LE_
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/1/6/6ra14.short
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25786900
https://www.pathology.columbia.edu/profile/michael-d-gershon-md
