How Your Stomach Could Control Your Brain
They might say "mind over matter," but it seems if we don't pay attention to the matter we put into our stomach — or rather, our gastrointestinal tract — it might end up controlling our mind!
According to Harvard Medical School, stress, depression and other psychological factors can affect how our gastrointestinal tract moves and contracts. This is why, for example, we might feel sick when we get stressed.
But scientists now recognize something commonly called the "brain in your gut," also known as the "enteric nervous system" — two thin layers of nerve cells found in your gastrointestinal tract.
Its main role is controlling digestion — from swallowing food to releasing the enzymes that break food down, and then controlling the blood flow that helps our bodies absorb nutrients. It doesn't really have thoughts, but it does communicate with the brain in our heads.
And the communication goes both ways: like how thinking about eating can get the stomach to release digestive juices before food gets there.
But Dr. Pankaj Pasricha of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona says the gut may even be able to tell the brain how to feel — with some research finding that irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the brain that cause mood changes.
Pasricha says therapies that help the gut may help the brain, and vice versa. So antidepressants or psychotherapy might be used as a treatment for gastrointestinal problems, he says.
Harvard Medical School also notes that studies have found that psychotherapy in combination with conventional medicine helps people with gastrointestinal problems more than medicine alone.
Pasricha says the digestive system may even affect thinking and memory, though more research is needed. And other research has shown that gut bacteria may affect the stress levels and sociability of mice.
However, the idea that the gut can directly affect the working of the brain hasn't been accepted by all scientists — and some argue that as most results have come from experiments in mice, the human connection is unclear.
Some also worry that the idea that gut health can affect brain health might encourage companies to try selling dietary supplements as cures for depression.
