One of my first thoughts when I heard about the gut brain was where is it? I remember biology class and studying anatomy and we all have seen pictures of our insides. Many of us could identify the brain, heart, stomach, liver, small intestines and large intestines, maybe even the pancreas, kidneys, spleen and gall bladder, but where the heck is the gut brain?? I don’t remember seeing it identified in the pictures.
The answer is quite simple. The reason you have never seen a picture of the gut brain is that the nerve tissues and complexes that make up the gut brain lie in the lining of the tube that runs from our mouth to our anus. That tube, our digestive system, includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach and small and large intestines. Please understand that there are various subsections of many of the parts of the tube but we will keep things simple until later.
When we stop to understand the vast and complex responsibilities of this tube, our digestive system, we begin to appreciate why it requires a “brain of its own”. Digestion is no small task. Not only must the food we eat and the liquids we drink be broken down into the exact nutrients that our cells can utilize but waste products, infectious agents and foreign substances must be separated from the nutrients so that the body only absorbs that which it can actually use.
The digestive system must carefully control each step of the process and the gut brain orchestrates this amazingly complex activity like the conductor of an orchestra. It is the gut brain that instructs the stomach to release the appropriate amount of acid, the pancreas when to release various digestive enzymes and tells the gall bladder when more bile is required to name just a few of the steps it controls. Additionally, it decides when the nutrients are truly in the form that they should be allowed to be absorbed through the mucosal lining of the intestines and into the blood stream for distribution to all the cells of the body.
In my next post we will talk about the body’s nervous system and where and how the gut brain fits into the hierarchy. For now let me just comment that what makes the gut brain a brain is its ability to make decisions. Researchers discovered the existence and function of interneurons in the nerve complexes that make up the gut brain. Interneurons are the cells that allow the gut brain to process information and make decisions. Previously, only the cells of the central nervous system (the head brain) had shown this ability.
Next time we will talk about the body’s nervous system and then with the basic components explained we can start to see how the health of our gut brain can have a causative role in both IBS and migraine. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks, Tom
The answer is quite simple. The reason you have never seen a picture of the gut brain is that the nerve tissues and complexes that make up the gut brain lie in the lining of the tube that runs from our mouth to our anus. That tube, our digestive system, includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach and small and large intestines. Please understand that there are various subsections of many of the parts of the tube but we will keep things simple until later.
When we stop to understand the vast and complex responsibilities of this tube, our digestive system, we begin to appreciate why it requires a “brain of its own”. Digestion is no small task. Not only must the food we eat and the liquids we drink be broken down into the exact nutrients that our cells can utilize but waste products, infectious agents and foreign substances must be separated from the nutrients so that the body only absorbs that which it can actually use.
The digestive system must carefully control each step of the process and the gut brain orchestrates this amazingly complex activity like the conductor of an orchestra. It is the gut brain that instructs the stomach to release the appropriate amount of acid, the pancreas when to release various digestive enzymes and tells the gall bladder when more bile is required to name just a few of the steps it controls. Additionally, it decides when the nutrients are truly in the form that they should be allowed to be absorbed through the mucosal lining of the intestines and into the blood stream for distribution to all the cells of the body.
In my next post we will talk about the body’s nervous system and where and how the gut brain fits into the hierarchy. For now let me just comment that what makes the gut brain a brain is its ability to make decisions. Researchers discovered the existence and function of interneurons in the nerve complexes that make up the gut brain. Interneurons are the cells that allow the gut brain to process information and make decisions. Previously, only the cells of the central nervous system (the head brain) had shown this ability.
Next time we will talk about the body’s nervous system and then with the basic components explained we can start to see how the health of our gut brain can have a causative role in both IBS and migraine. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks, Tom
posted by Tom Stav at 9:12 AM
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