United States: The gut-brain axis is more like a two-way road where your brain and the stomach communicate through a very special nerve which is called the vagus nerve. What happens actually in your brain can affect your stomach, and vice versa.
As reported by South China Morning Post, For example, when you’re actually getting anxious or stressed and your brain can actually sends signals to your gut, which can cause issues like an upset stomach, diarrhea, or constipation. This is like a traffic jam between your brain and gut, making everything feel off. Taking care of your mental health can relate help your stomach feel better, and eating the right foods can keep your brain and gut happy.
Enteric Nervous System: The Gut’s Own Brain
However the enteric nervous system simple put is the nervous system within the gastrointestinal tract and it produces the neurotransmitters as well as a large proportion of the feel good hormone serotonin also produced in the brain and the gammaaminnobutryric acid which helps control and manage your feelings of fear and anxiety.
This is the only reason why the psychiatrists are increasingly looking to the gut to help manage mental health disorders.
The gut microbiome and the environment or can say the surroundings inside the gut including the bacteria in the digestive system that has a very big impact on the mood and the mental health.
The Gut Microbiome’s Impact on your normal Mood and Mental Health
The concept of the gut microbiome started to gain traction in scientific circles as far back as the late 1980s, says Dr Paul Clayton, a leader in the field of nutrition who has written several books, including Let Your Food Be Your Pharmaco-Nutrition: The New Road to Health, Healing and Happiness.
Also the Dr. Michael Gershon who is a professor of pathology and the cell biology at the University of Columbia in New York and the author of the Second brain says that the nerve cells in our gut can control its workings and that this brain and the one in our head must cooperate.
Ongoing Research and Discoveries
However, Gershon’s work has encouraged the generations of the doctors and the researchers to explore the link between the two and somehow they’ll find it super soon.
In continuation of this the Scientists at Sorbonne University in Paris and recently found the gut microbiome may affect the decision making.