Amazing Facts About Your Gut You Can’t Ignore
If you think your gut is only good for processing foods and expelling wastes, read this now
Your gut is more than just an alimentary canal for digesting foods and excreting wastes.
More than 4,000 years ago, traditional Chinese medicine physicians were of the view that the key to vibrant health and longevity was a healthy digestive system. Without a properly functioning digestive system, death was usually not far behind.
Although under today’s living and health care conditions, you’re less likely to die of a gastrointestinal-related disease than those who lived in the past, it remains a fact that a healthy gut is essential to a sound mind and body.
In this post, we’ll look at some important facts that will open your eyes to the far-reaching influences your gut has over your whole body, including the way you think and feel.
Your Gut Has a Brain of Its Own
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Fact #1:
The connection between the digestive system and the central nervous system, consisting of the brain and the spinal cord, is well-known.
But what is lesser known is that the digestive system also has an independent nervous system of its own called the enteric nervous system.
Just as there are neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain and the spinal cord, neurons are also found widely dispersed throughout the gut, from the esophagus to the rectum. There are, in fact, more neurons in the gastrointestinal tract than in the entire spinal cord.
The enteric nervous system, or the ENS, has been described as a “second brain” by scientists because it can and does function independently, though normally it also interacts actively with the central nervous system.
Neurons in the ENS produces neurotransmitters, most of which are identical to the ones found in the brain. For example, more than 90% of the body’s serotonin, a chemical best known for promoting a sense of well-being, lies in the gut, not in the brain. In addition, about half of the dopamine in the body also resides in the gut. Among its many functions, dopamine is linked to the brain’s reward and pleasure centers.
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What These Mean to You:
Neurological illnesses may not always mean there’s something wrong with the brain. They could very well be the manifestations of a sick gut, which is in turn affected by the very food we put into our mouth.
Several neurological disorders, such as autism, epilepsy and migraine, have already been associated with a dysfunctional enteric nervous system.
On the other hand, psychotic drugs that target the mind can inadvertently affect the ‘second brain’ too. For instance, a class of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that increases serotonin levels is known to cause gastrointestinal problems as a side effect.
Stress Can Mess Up Your Gut
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Fact #2:
Several studies (such as this) have found that stress, acute or chronic, can trigger and exacerbate symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, which is characterized by chronic abdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, diarrhea and/or constipation.
Being in a state of stress while eating is also known to slow digestion as the body diverts energy away from the digestive system to deal with what it thought is an anticipated life-and-death situation. As a result, food stays in the stomach longer, leading to the production of gas, indigestion and bloating.
Even without scientific studies, you’ve probably experienced the effects of psychological stress on your gut in your own life. Recall the last nerve-wrecking speech or presentation you’ve made. Did you get ‘butterflies in the stomach’ or even loose stool before the event? Besides anxiety, intense fear — real or imaginary — is also sufficient to trigger a gut-wrenching sensation.
Why stress has such noticeable effects on the gut? The reason is not clear yet, but some studies proposed that stress may disrupt intestinal flora, increasing intestinal permeability and even promoting low-grade inflammation.
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What These Mean to You:
Chronic stress doesn’t just play havoc with the heart, it messes up the gut as well. If you find yourself constantly stressed-out, it’s crucial that you make relaxation a non-negotiable activity in your daily schedule. It can be as simple as taking 15 minutes to practice a guided meditation, or going out for a meditative walk at the nearest park. For the benefit of your long-term health, you may also want to take a good hard look at the sources of your stress and evaluate how you can reduce or remove the stressors once and for all.
Your Gut Determines How Much You Eat
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Fact #3:
Our appetite was once thought to be predominantly controlled by the brain. But now, it is increasingly clear that hormones produced in the gut influence our eating behavior as well. These hormones, such as pancreatic polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1, are released when one eats, acting as neurotransmitters that tell the brain to stop eating.
The story, however, isn’t as simple as that. It turns out that our appetite can also be manipulated by intestinal bacteria too! In another study done by Emory University in Atlanta on lab rats, scientists suggested that certain species of bacteria that may cause gut inflammation may also increase appetite and possibly play a role in weight gain.
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What These Mean to You:
It’s still premature to suggest yogurt diet as a form of weight loss program. Besides, obesity is likely to be the cause of multiple factors, not just because of having the wrong types of microbes in your gut.
But that doesn’t stop researchers from actively looking into how to manipulate gastrointestinal hormones with new drugs to cash in on the lucrative weight loss market.
Before you buy, bear in mind that there are still many things we don’t know about the gut, including the many bacteria inside. Trying to toy with the gut hormones could destroy the delicate balance within and yield unexpected adverse results in the long run.
Gut Bacteria Could Influence Your Behavior
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Fact #4:
A study done jointly by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore found that mice that were raised without normal gut flora were more active, bolder and less anxious than conventional mice. But when these germ-free rodents were later colonized with normal gut bacteria at a young age, their adventurous traits disappeared and they behaved no different from other mice. Attempts to colonize an adult germ-free mouse, on the other hand, didn’t have any effect on behavior.
Differences between sterile and normal mice were also observed in their brains. For instance, genes that are associated with anxiety were less active in germ-free mice than in conventional mice.
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What These Mean to You:
While it’s still too early to reach any concrete conclusion, the study did bring up a few interesting discussions.
Firstly, the microbes inside our body (mostly in the gut) exert far more influence on us than we can ever imagine, especially if you’re a newborn. We are only beginning to understand their roles in a few chronic conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel diseases, colon cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome. There are likely to be more waiting to be uncovered.
Then, as absurd as the idea that human behavior can be influenced by single-cell microbes may sound, it is probably not that far-fetched when you really think about it. After all, gut bacteria vastly outnumber human cells in the body, to the tune of ten to one.
And lastly, all these research on intestinal microbes give us more reasons to take our gut microbiota seriously than ever before. For me, that means including different types of probiotic foods regularly in my diet, and avoiding foods and drugs (antibiotics and Splenda come to mind) that would disrupt the delicate bacterial communities in the gut unless absolutely necessary.
