Gut Health

Did you know that you actually have more neurotransmitters in your stomach than you do in your brain? Psychology Today calls our stomach our “second brain.” I know, it is mind blowing!!!

We have something called a gut-brain axis. It is a bidirectional communication network that links our enteric and central nervous system. This network is not only anatomical, but it extends to include endocrine, humoral, metabolic, and immune routes of communication as well. Our autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and nerves within the gastrointestinal tract, all link the gut and the brain, allowing the brain to influence intestinal activities, including activity of functional immune effector cells; and the gut to influence mood, cognition, and mental health. (Jeremy Appleton, ND)

So, with that being said...I have had my share of gastrointestinal, cognitive, mood, mental health, and immune disruptions! Through my experiences and research I came across an enlightening book. I usually do not use the word diet in my vocabulary. I prefer to use healthy eating and choosing it as a lifestyle. However, I am hopeful you will gain wisdom from the following book, The Slow Down Diet By: Marc David.

You can achieve more by doing less...Your metabolism is the sum total of all the chemical reactions in your body, plus the sum total of all your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and experiences. You can reclaim your personal power and metabolic power. By choosing a healthy pleasure to relax while eating, you can achieve an increase in your metabolism.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

When one eats under the state of stress or anxiety, the following symptoms will most likely be experienced: heartburn, cramping, gas, digestive pain, belching, and intense hunger. During stress on your body, it automatically shifts into classic fight-flight-freeze response.

The moment your stress response is activated, your heart rate speeds up, blood pressure increases, respiration quikcens, hormones that provide immediate energy such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol are released into your circulatory system, blood flow is rerouted away from your midsection and toward the head for quick thinking and to arms and legs for the necessary power to flee, freeze, or fly away. During this stress response, your digestive system completely shuts down. All your body’s metabolic function must be geared directly to survival.

So, if you are eating in an anxious state, your food will just sit in your stomach waiting minutes to even hours for your body to kick back into its normal digestive functioning. You can eat the healthiest me, but if you eat in an anxious state, your digestion is dramatically diminished.

“Your mood affects the digestion of your food.”

Your salivary enzyme content in your mouth is reduced, the breakdown of protein, fat, and carbohydrate macromolecules in the stomach is impaired, and the blood flow to your small intestines is decreased as much as fourfold. All of these changes in your body translates to decreased assimilation of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. So, it’s not only important what we eat; it is also the mental state we are in when we eat!

Your (ANS) autonomic nervous system is the greatest portion of your CNS that influences your digestion. Your ANS is responsible for getting your stomach churning, getting your enzymatic secretions in the digestive process flowing, and keeping the nutrient absorption into your bloodstream on the move. There are two subdivisions of your ANS to accomplish this dual task of digestive arousal and inhibition. The (PNS) parasympathetic branch which relaxes your body to activate digestion, and the (SNS) sympathetic branch that activates your stress response and suppresses digestive activity.

“Take time to slow down in your life, and with food. Breathe deeply before, during, and after meals.”

The simple act of taking time to slow down to eat can shift your SNS to your PNS dominance. Relaxation will create your metabolic power. The scientific documentation for the connection between weight gain and stress, shows conditions with high cortisol production is strongly associated with fat accumulation. One of the biggest responsibilities of cortisol is to signal the body to store fat and not build muscle. Cortisol is also the key hormone released in significant quantities during acute and chronic stress.

Chronic stress can also increase the output of insulin, another hormone strongly associated with weight gain. One of the ways your insulin lowers your blood glucose is by telling the body to aggressively store excess dietary carbohydrates as fat. Insulin also signals to your body to not release any stored fat.

“Worrying about fat increases fat. Anxiety about weight loss causes your body to put on and retain it.”

“The way we do food is the way we do life. Slowing down with our meals, then is symbolic of relaxing into our body, our career, our fears and desires, and anything life presents.”

The gut is often our barometer of our emotional states and stressors. These “gut feelings” are the gut brain, known as the (ENS) enteric nervous system. It is housed under and between layers of our esophagus, the stomach, and both intestines. The ENS is a network of neurons and neurochemicals that sense and control events in our digestive tract, along with other parts of the body, like our brain.

Our gut-brain contains over one hundred million neurons-more than the number of nerve cells in our spinal cord. In fact, there is a significant greater flow of neural traffic from our ENS to the head-brain than from the head-brain to our ENS. So, rather than the head informing the digestive system what to eat and how much to metabolize, the locus of control is stationed in our belly.

In addition to our extensive network of neurons, the entire digestive tract is also lined with cells that produce and receive a variety of neuropeptides and neurochemicals, as the same, in our brain: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and glutamate. And, many hormones once thought to be only in the gut, are also found in our brain: insulin, cholecystokinin, vasoactive intestinal protein, motilin, gastrin, somatostatin, thyrotropin releasing hormone, neurotensin, secretin, substance P, glucagon, and bombesin.

Our ENS gut-brain and CNS also share a similar sleep state. Both move through cycles of 90 min slow-wave sleep frequencies, followed by REM. Also, they share 90 min of slow-wave muscular contractions followed by brief spurts of rapid muscular movements.

The entire digestive tract is lined with specialized cells that produce and receive endorphins and enkephalins, chemicals that yield an array of sensations including joy, satisfaction, and pain relief. WE have a tremendous amount of brain power in our belly. Allow your head-brain to play it’s supportive role.

With this wisdom, may you choose to slow down, breathe, and allow both your brain and belly flow with ease!