“As Olympians go for the gold in Vancouver, even the steeliest are likely to experience that familiar feeling of “butterflies” in the stomach. Underlying this sensation is an often-overlooked network of neurons lining our guts that is so extensive some scientists have nicknamed it our “second brain”.
A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body.”
Read more at Scientific American
I did read somewhere that there is more serotonin in the guts than there is in your brain… which makes me think that good food can genuinely make you happy!
I guess it’s pretty much something I’ve already discovered in other readings so nothing new unless you didn’t know it before. Though a great discovery for those that have problems in the gut area.
hel, i know some folks fer whom it’s their first brain!
As a sufferer of IBS, I see I’m stated as having a mental illness of the ‘second brain’. That’s nice to know……
LC x
I’ve been told by a doctor that its very common for Depression sufferers to also suffer from IBS.
Agree that there is nothing new in this. I have Crohn’s Disease which I have long considered the result of a suicidal, possibly homicidal, entera. I feel an OK magazine feature coming on: “My second brain wants me dead!”
Trust your gut feelings, and although balance is in the ears it’s easier for a relaxed posture to think of the gut as the centre of the body with it’s own gyroscope!
I am a very young sufferer of IBS and this makes some more sense to me. IBS runs in my family and i find it hard to understand, doctors gave me some tablets which sometimes help. I think this post as it could lead to me being more aware. Thank you, Jennifer x
Makes sense. I have Asperger’s and IBS, which according to the article are actually connected on a genetic level. Interesting to know how that works.
I def. would not call that 2nd brain. If your digestion isn’t working out it can cause pain, slower mind, tired feeling etc., which is not that weird as we loose our energy. Female experience the same around or during (part) of their period, partially also due to the fact that the metabolism changes.
Its like a car, the body, in this area. If something does not work properly, it will run so smoothly.
And what you put in there is not all out of importance. That may differ from body to body though.
The system also changes during life, wont stay the same constantly. Stress coming from the outside may cause stress in the digestion area as well as we know. It is also a psychological system .. that above plainly a physical thing. A combination .. Psycho somatic is a well known term.
No s**t Sherlock.
I concur with the CamdenPrince