[ETL]

The Brain-Gut Connection

Anxiety and depression have been thought to contribute to gastro conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

A Johns Hopkins expert explains how what’s going on in your gut could be affecting your brain

If you’ve ever “gone with your gut” to make a decision or felt “butterflies in your stomach” when nervous, you’re likely getting signals from an unexpected source: your second brain. Hidden in the walls of the digestive system, this “brain in your gut” is revolutionizing medicine’s understanding of the links between digestion, mood, health and even the way you think.

Scientists call this little brain the enteric nervous system (ENS). And it’s not so little. The ENS is two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells lining your gastrointestinal tract from esophagus to rectum.

What Does Your Gut’s Brain Control?

Unlike the big brain in your skull, the ENS can’t balance your checkbook or compose a love note. “Its main role is controlling digestion, from swallowing to the release of enzymes that break down food to the control of blood flow that helps with nutrient absorption to elimination,” explains Jay Pasricha, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Neurogastroenterology, whose research on the enteric nervous system has garnered international attention. “The enteric nervous system doesn’t seem capable of thought as we know it, but it communicates back and forth with our big brain—with profound results.”

The ENS may trigger big emotional shifts experienced by people coping with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional bowel problems such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating, pain and stomach upset. “For decades, researchers and doctors thought that anxiety and depression contributed to these problems. But our studies and others show that it may also be the other way around,” Pasricha says. Researchers are finding evidence that irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the central nervous system (CNS) that trigger mood changes.

“These new findings may explain why a higher-than-normal percentage of people with IBS and functional bowel problems develop depression and anxiety,” Pasricha says. “That’s important, because up to 30 to 40 percent of the population has functional bowel problems at some point.”

New Gut Understanding Equals New Treatment Opportunities

This new understanding of the ENS-CNS connection helps explain the effectiveness of IBS and bowel-disorder treatments such as antidepressants and mind-body therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and medical hypnotherapy. “Our two brains ‘talk’ to each other, so therapies that help one may help the other,” Pasricha says. “In a way, gastroenterologists (doctors who specialize in digestive conditions) are like counselors looking for ways to soothe the second brain.”

Gastroenterologists may prescribe certain antidepressants for IBS, for example—not because they think the problem is all in a patient’s head, but because these medications calm symptoms in some cases by acting on nerve cells in the gut, Pasricha explains. “Psychological interventions like CBT may also help to “improve communications” between the big brain and the brain in our gut,” he says.

Still More to Learn About Mind-Gut Link

Pasricha says research suggests that digestive-system activity may affect cognition (thinking skills and memory), too. “This is an area that needs more research, something we hope to do here at Johns Hopkins,” he says.

Another area of interest: Discovering how signals from the digestive system affect metabolism, raising or reducing risk for health conditions like type 2 diabetes. “This involves interactions between nerve signals, gut hormones and microbiota—the bacteria that live in the digestive system,” Pasricha says.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy_aging/healthy_body/the-brain-gut-connection

[cdcdawg]

Fascinating. Thank you for posting this.

[ETL]

Gut–brain axis

The gut–brain axis is the biochemical signaling that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) and the central nervous system (CNS).[1]

The term “gut–brain axis” is occasionally used to refer to the role of the gut flora in the interplay as well, whereas the term “microbiome–gut–brain axis” explicitly includes the role of gut flora in the biochemical signaling events that take place between the GI tract and CNS.[1][2][3]

Broadly defined, the gut–brain axis includes the central nervous system, neuroendocrine and neuroimmune systems, including the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis), sympathetic and parasympathetic arms of the autonomic nervous system, including the enteric nervous system and the vagus nerve, and the gut microbiota.[1][3]

The first of the brain–gut interactions shown, was the cephalic phase of digestion, in the release of gastric and pancreatic secretions in response to sensory signals, such as the smell and sight of food. This was first demonstrated by Pavlov.[4][5]

Interest in the field was sparked by a 2004 study showing that germ-free (GF) mice showed an exaggerated HPA axis response to stress compared to non-GF laboratory mice.[1]

As of October 2016, most of the work that had been done on the role of gut flora in the gut–brain axis had been conducted in animals, or on characterizing the various neuroactive compounds that gut flora can produce.

Studies with humans – measuring variations in gut flora between people with various psychiatric and neurological conditions or when stressed, or measuring effects of various probiotics (dubbed “psychobiotics” in this context) – had generally been small and were just beginning to be generalized.[6]

Whether changes to gut flora are a result of disease, a cause of disease, or both in any number of possible feedback loops in the gut–brain axis, remained unclear.[7][1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut%E2%80%93brain_axis

[DannyTN]

similar to Dr Gundry’s claim that gut health or lack thereof is the source of all disease.

Of course, if you transplanted fecal material into me, I’d act a little strange too.

[Red Badger]

Two Wongs don’t make it right........................

[Steely Tom]

Doctors of “Chiropractic” believe that disease is caused by problems with the spine.

[Jeff Chandler]

In your guts it makes you nuts.

[MrEdd]

“Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheat. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

[Fido969]

If true, this discovery could wipe out the Democrat party.

[RooRoobird20]

Schizophrenia is also strongly hereditary and skips generations.

My paternal grandpa was a paranoid schizophrenic, held his life together(worked, married, had children) until his late 30’s. Then he had a final psychotic break from reality. He spent the rest of his life in the state mental hospital. As a paranoid schizophrenic his behavior was dangerous, he thought everyone was trying to hurt or kill him and he acted accordingly.

With my grandpa’s medical history, I had a 1 in 4 chance of having schizophrenia. My mom and dad had four children and my oldest sister has schizophrenia. Skipping generations, one in four chance, my poor sister won the tragic lottery.

Fortunately she is NOT paranoid schizophrenic, she is “disorganized” schizophrenic. She has benign delusions(Ex: Prince Charles is one of her husbands LOL) , but mainly she is very confused most of the time. She’s as gentle as a little lamb and has a normal I Q. Still, she’s completely disabled, unable to work, because of her schizophrenia.

[newfreep]

But what explains Quadrophenia - it's twice as destructive as Schizophrenia?

[BitWielder1]

Is it possible that certain microbes produce psychotropic toxins?
If so, a hefty dose of antibiotics should have a noticeable effect.

[fruser1]

So the government isn’t controlling your mind with radio waves after all.

It’s the school lunch.

[blueunicorn6]

“Hear voices”?

So hearing voices makes you crazy?

I could see if you smelled voices, but doesn’t pretty much everybody hear voices?

Not those guys in the monasteries where no one can talk.

But they probably have a really good data plan.

I hear my wife’s voice just now.

“Quit fooling around on that Free Republic and get out there and shovel the snow off the driveway!”

“Can’t Dear. I hear your voice so I must be crazy and there’s a law that crazy people aren’t allowed to shovel snow.”

[mjp]

“The brains of the animals given microbes from patients with schizophrenia also showed changes in glutamate, a neurotransmitter that is thought to be dysregulated in schizophrenia,” he added.

The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Pathophysiological Mechanisms and Novel Treatments.

Glutamate and dopamine in schizophrenia: an update for the 21st century.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A friend of mine that I got my BS in chemistry with worked on a project in the ‘70s where schizophrenics were put on dialysis and their psychosis went away. He was analyzing the dialysate to determine what it was that was making them crazy. I never heard the outcome.

[Ken H]

So I went to see a shrink one time. He said, “You have a split personality. That’ll be $100. So I said, “Here’s $50. Get the rest from the other guy.”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A friend of mine that I got my BS in chemistry with worked on a project in the ‘70s where schizophrenics were put on dialysis and their psychosis went away. He was analyzing the dialysate to determine what it was that was making them crazy. I never heard the outcome.

[Faith65]

BFL

[Falconspeed]

“Chongqing Medical University in China.” Enough said.

Schizophrenia is caused by the mis-wiring of the T-cells in the brain near the anterior cingulate cortex. American universities.

[trebb]

The cost of pro-biotics is gonna skyrocket now.....