Brain-Gut Axis

[Guest guest]

We an see another ill-effect of convenience cell phones.

Radiating the brain with cell phone micro-waves has to affect digestion,

irritable bowel syndrome, etc.

Jerry M.

 

Reply with your street or po box address

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-

" Misty L. Trepke " <mistytrepke

 

Saturday, December 20, 2003 10:08 AM

[s-A] [AltAnswers] Brain-Gut Axis

 

 

Science just might be catching up to the concept of mind-body

medicine....

Other Comments?

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Good Morning!

 

The Brain-Gut Axis

 

Experts have recognized a powerful connection between the digestive

system and the brain. For example, psychologic factors greatly

influence contractions of the intestine, secretion of digestive

enzymes, and other functions of the digestive system. Even

susceptibility to infection, which leads to various digestive system

disorders, is strongly influenced by the brain. In turn, the

digestive system influences the brain.

 

For example, long-standing or recurring diseases such as irritable

bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and other painful diseases

affect emotions, behaviors, and daily functioning. This two-way

association has been called the brain-gut axis(Merck manual).

 

It's very difficult to separate your emotions from your " gut "

feelings. Your gut, intuition, is really your years of experience,

your common sense, the something that tells when it's right or

wrong. When you base your decisions from your heart (emotion), it's

cluttered with all sorts of personal sentiments. A good analogy is

that your heart is only about two inches away from your stomach

(gut) but a million miles away in logic. We must learn, how to

balance our(heart) emotion with our somatic (gut) feelings.

 

Neuroscientist/pharmacologist Candace Pert, author of Molecules of

Emotion, has concluded, based on her research, that chemicals called

neuropeptides, which are produced and have receptors throughout the

brain and body, are the biochemical correlates of emotions. For

Pert, the distribution of peptide receptors throughout the body is

of critical importance, and she challenges the long-held assumption

in traditional neuroscience that emotions are an entirely brain-

based phenomenon. More recently, Pert has used the implications of

her research on emotion to make claims about the nature of gut

feelings.

 

Modern scientists, neurologist Antonio Damasio, in his book

Descartes' Error and other publications, focuses primarily on how we

make decisions, and his unique contribution is his theory that

emotions play a central role in appropriate decision-making. His

somatic marker hypothesis, clearly implicates the body as a source

of emotional input crucial to the decision-making process. Yet, he

definitely does view the brain as the location of integration

between emotional inputs and input about the characteristics of the

external situation. Furthermore, he maintains that after initial

somatic input is linked with a specific type of situation,

phenomenon such as gut feelings can arise through a closed circuit

within the brain. In other words in the absence of input from or

output to the body.

 

Emotions often find their outlet in the gut. Nerves, stresses,

emotional upsets, mental problems, and other psychological factors

can wreak havoc with the GI tract. That's because the brain and the

gastrointestinal system are intimately connected.

 

The entire journey of food through the 30-foot-long digestive tract

is quarterbacked by a remarkable communication network known as the

enteric nervous system (ENS). This intricate nerve complex is

located in the gut wall and communicates with the brain via the

spinal cord. In turn, hormones, neurotransmitters, and connections

to the central nervous system that affect muscle, mucosa, and blood

vessels in the digestive tract influence the ENS.

 

In the 1990's neurocardiologists discovered the brain in the heart -

which also acts independently of the head. The " heart brain " is

comprised of a distinctive set of nerve cells, neurotransmitters,

and support cells and has highly sophisticated computational

abilities. The heart brain can also learn, remember, and respond to

life independently of the brain in the head.

 

Recent imaging studies of the brain show that functional GI symptoms

are not necessarily the result of dysfunction in the bowel, but may

be due to disturbances in brain-gut pathways that alter pain

thresholds, control movement through and contractions of the GI

tract, and influence our behavior.

 

 

Andrew Pacholyk LMT, MT-BC, CA

Peacefulmind.com

Alternative medicine and therapies

for healing mind, body & spirit!