I’ve got a gut feeling
Have you heard the expressions;
- A gut feeling (intuition about something)
- Going with your gut (make a decision on something)
- Butterflies in your stomach (feeling nervous)
Why do you get gut feelings? You have a feeling in your gut but you don’t know why or where it is coming from. You are most likely getting signals from your second brain. This second brain is buried within the walls of the digestive tract. Understanding this ‘second brain’ is changing the way we understand the links between digestion, mood, health, and even the way you think.
The scientific word for this second brain is the Enteric Nervous System (ENS). The ENS is composed of two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells lining your gastrointestinal tract from the esophagus to rectum.
What does this gut brain control?
The ENS (Gut Brain) plays a primary role in managing digestive functions. This includes swallowing, releasing digestive enzymes, controlling blood flow to help with absorbing nutrients and eliminating wastes.
There is research that shows that digestive disorders such as; IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and stomach pain can have a strong influence on a person’s emotional state and vice versa. A person experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression could later develop digestive disorders. Irritation in the digestive tract sends signals to the spinal cord & brain (CNS: Central Nervous System) that trigger mood changes.
Can eating make you happy?
Of course! A healthy diet is very important. Eating foods that lead to constipation or diarrhea can affect and damage your emotional state. If you feel; tired, nauseous, heavy, bloated, or have mind fog after eating, this could reflect your enteric nervous system (gut brain) reacting to something you ate by sending signals to your brain.
What’s this you say? Eating healthy makes you happy? You may say, ‘but eating healthy never made me happy! I much prefer to eat; ice cream, lollies, & sweets.’ This is because many of these foods contain sugar which give a temporary happy buzz, a spike in energy, and then a fall down. This is a big subject in itself and should be saved for another day. But essentially; eating sugary foods leads to short term happiness and relief but ultimately damages your health & eating healthy leads to long term happiness, relief, and ultimately strengthens your body. Which would you prefer?
Does this matter?
Understanding the connection between the ENS (Gut Brain) – CNS (Primary Brain) helps to explain how treating digestion can help with emotions and treating emotions can help with digestion. It reflects the close, tight knight, intricate, and interconnected system that the body is composed of.
Chinese Medicine for a long time (even prior to the discovery of the ENS) have understood the close relationship between emotions and digestion. Chinese medicine prides itself on being able to treat the body holistically and with fewer risks than associated with pharmaceutical medicine. Chinese medicine uses a range of tool to achieve this, including; acupuncture, massage, cupping, moxabustion, chinese herbal therapy, diet therapy, and exercise therapy. Common side effects reported from acupuncture includes; improved sleep, digestion, and a general sense of wellbeing.
