Did you know that every type of mental disorder has some sort of gut disorder along with it? It doesn’t matter if it’s depression, anxiety, autism, schizophrenia, bipolar, or whatever label the medical establishment has gave someone. If you have mental health issues, you have gut issues. There are numerous studies now showing the connection between gut health, and brain health.
We see that when people who have gastrointestinal problems meditate and/or get their thoughts under control, they are able to get relief from their symptoms. This is because stress can communicate with the gut and the gut microbiome in a negative way. We also see that when people heal their gut, they also heal their brain and their mental health disorders go away.
The enteric nervous system is one of the main divisions of the autonomic nervous system that lines the entire gastrointestinal tract. It communicates to the central nervous system via the vagus nerve and the central nervous system communicates to the brain. Many scientists are now calling the enteric nervous system the second brain, and for good reason.
There are 10x as many nerve fibers going from the gut to the brain as the other way around. This alone should show you how powerful the gut is for mental health! It also shows you that the gut is more in charge of the brain, then the brain being in charge of the gut. The gut communicates to the brain via the vagus nerve but also through the endocrine and immunological systems with the help of the microbiota. This is known as the gut-brain axis.
Now you can see clearly how the gut and brain are connected. Whatever is going on in the gut is also going on in the brain. If there’s inflammation in the gut, there is inflammation in the brain. If there are disturbances in the gut or the gut microbiome, there is some kind of disturbance in the brain. 70%+ of your immune tissue is also in your gut, along with the gut microbiome which helps to modulate your immune system
I hope you can see now how important it is to keep your gut healthy. A healthy gut equals a happy, healthy mind, and body. I wanted to keep this one short so in my next post I’ll talk about the microbiome and how it influences your health, mental health and how to keep it healthy and diverse. Stay tuned!