Did you know you have TWO brains?
Would you believe me if I told you that your second brain exists in your gut? Your brain and gut are connected through your vagus nerve. This nerve is considered the messenger between the two.
Your brain and gut are always communicating
The gut contains more than 100 million nerve cells! This way, both your brain and gut can send signals to each other (via the vagus nerve).
You can think of your brain and gut as a couple in a long-distance relationship. When there is a change or imbalance in one, it affects the other.
What lives in your gut?
Your gut houses many types of microbes like bacteria, bacteriophages, viruses, and fungi (the brain and gut rely on these microbes to keep their relationship healthy).
Everyone’s microbiome is different and can change over time. In order to have normal cognitive and emotional processing, it's important to have a healthy microbiome.
A healthy gut is a diverse gut!
When you eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly, the helpful bugs in your gut will be diverse and healthy. Just like any good relationship, each counterpart needs to be healthy on their own and in order to be happy together!
Your gut can actually make you happy!
The cells in your brain talk to each other using neurotransmitters. Did you know that a lot of neurotransmitters are also produced by your gut cells? A large portion of serotonin (the neurotransmitter that makes you happy) is produced and released in your gut. A healthy gut means more serotonin, which means more happiness!
Go with your gut feeling
Do you ever feel sick after eating a bunch of junk food? Eating poorly actually changes the composition of your gut, making it harder for the microbes to digest food and absorb the nutrients that are needed for your body. If you want to support the love between your gut and brain, be conscious of your diet!
What does an unhealthy gut look like?
If your diet is composed of mostly fatty food, then your microbiome will only produce fat digesting bacteria. Your healthy microbiota will die if they are not needed. A less diverse and imbalanced gut causes the relationship between your brain and gut to suffer! A damaged gut takes time to fix back so be mindful of how much of certain foods you consume.
Unhealthy Gut = Unhappy Mood
Low diversity can actually lead to you to continue craving your usual diet. It can also lead to decreases in serotonin production resulting in less social communication, anxiety, stress, and depression. An unhealthy diet will negatively affect the long-distance relationship between the brain and the gut. :(
Gut bacteria are a key to a strong immune system so an unhealthy microbiome can also alter how you fight off disease.
What happens when we take Antibiotics?
Antibiotics don’t only kill bad bacteria but they kill good bacteria as well.
People can also experience antibiotic side- effects because sometimes their immune health can be compromised.
Antibiotics are effective in treating bacterial infections but it is also important to restore your gut health after!
One way to make your gut happy
Some probiotics have shown to improve symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. They are good bacteria and can be consumed through fermented foods and supplements.
Interested in reading more about probiotics?
Healthy gut, Happy brain!
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