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The Second Brain: How Your Gut Talks to Your Mind 

Emma Sosa

For decades, the brain was viewed as the commander of the human body-the conductor in a orchestra of thought, memory, emotion, and motion. But new science is showing that our command center doesn't necessarily do all its work alone. 

Buried within the twisting corridors of the digestive system lies an incredibly complicated network-almost as if you’ve packed your insides with 100 million tiny brains: the enteric nervous system, also referred to as the "second brain" because it can regulate gut functions independently from our big brains or spinal cords. 

Perhaps even more strikingly, our gut and brains are actually having conversations 24/7. 

A Two-Way Street Between the Gut and the Brain 

The pipeline of signals that connect your gut and brain is called the gut-brain axis. This pipeline involves nerves, immune system, hormones, and the trillions of microorganisms-or microbes-that call your digestive system home. 

One key pathway between the two is a massive nerve known as the vagus nerve-like a super-highway that carries signals between your brain and various organs; your gut included. 

But these signals aren't travelling one way only. 

Just as your brain can influence your gut, your gut-even the trillions of microbial residents living within it-can influence your brain. This might just help to explain why stomach bugs can sometimes leave us feeling sad and depressed, or how emotional distress can wreak havoc on our digestive processes. 

The Microbiome: Tiny Organisms with a Huge Influence 

Trillions of microorganisms inhabit our gut (the gut microbiome), from the esophagus down to the end. These guys do many jobs in the body, including breaking down certain food bits, communicating with the immune system, and sending into the body biologically active compounds which interact with our brains, guts, and more. 

Certain gut bacteria can actually create molecule signaling compounds for nerves, and Scientists are exploring if we can directly modify some signaling compounds to alter processes related to our mental health, the inflammation of many different conditions, how we learn and remember, and what motivates us to do things. 

Yet, it's difficult for scientists to definitively establish how much control the microbiome actually controls the brain. 

(This is important, since we don't have many solid foods to give the gut Microbiome the kinds of good bugs we need to have a better Brain.) 

Why Stress Can Make Your Stomachache 

You’ve maybe experienced a stress- Induced symptom of having butterflies in your stomach or maybe even an upsetting belly ache or pain. Have those symptoms ever helped me remember it’s actually an actual bodily sensation when your mind reacts when there’s danger around! When the brain thinks there may be danger, our bodies have the ability to produce chemicals that affect the heart rate, the way our systems deliver all of the blood to our organs, which signals the body to do a complete restart for many things in the body which affects how we can get our food into the body. 

This is why having an upset stomach after stress is very real…and why your gut is telling us what happens when body processes are out of control… 

There is no physical difference in where the symptoms you’re experiencing happen. 

Could the Brain affect you? 

The research on this topic could be a fantastic lead that points to the connections of what it may look like. Neuroscientists are actively examining if disturbances in our gut microbes could correlate with neurological problems as well as psychiatric conditions like depression and dementia. 

However, correlation doesn’t prove the concept. It’s unclear what causes changes in the gut whether our condition causes our poor bacteria to be present, the poor gut cause is a precursor for things to occur, whether it’s part of being physically ill or a reflection of the diets our cultures and ourselves follow. It’s too early to jump to drastic conclusions or believe there’s a magic potion in supplements to cure all. It does offer fascinating avenues to the future of medical care when doctors will probably be treating the mind as well as the guts together. 

Gut Brain Axis 

Our bodies have numerous interdependent connections that our physicians are trying hard to understand and manage. Researchers and experts of health now can see connections between our guts and brains, how our guts make feel what we feel, and we are starting to see what kind of mental and physical health advantages come from the microbiomes. Our journey has already taken this direction.  

As you and i have learned, it’s been done many decades prior to our time in our lives on planet… this new understanding has made modern science very complicated indeed….” But what is life all about?  

What is the connection with life as we know and can, as we see it every single day? It makes a great deal more meaning in our life to learn. “What happens if our bodies quit perceiving all our interconnected systems as discrete components and see them more like a connected network of relationships? If our bodies can view themselves and interact with this idea in an interconnected framework - this may truly represent the future of medical breakthroughs - or a return to basics and the way our bodies are meant to perform, as a constantly interacting communication network…. The greater scientists actively attempt to “eavesdrop” on this cellular dialogue – the higher possibility they’re going to disclose the secrets of achieving wellness to live a higher quality lifestyle throughout the world.