Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Oct/Nov 2014 - Featuring Louise Hay | Page 71

Michael Gershon, professor and chair of
pathology and cell biology at Columbia
University, has done groundbreaking work
on how the gut’s brain, or enteric nervous
system (ENS), works. Here are a few key
facts56, 57:
The enteric nervous system is embedded in
your entire digestive tract from mouth to anus.
It relies on, and in many cases creates,
more than 30 neurotransmitters that are
identical to those in the brain. (Serotonin is
one of these.)
Approximately 70 to 80 percent of your
immune system is located in your gut.
This makes sense because your digestive
system has a big job. It takes in food, water,
and bacteria from the outside world and
transforms it into nutrients to grow, repair,
and maintain the human body. This is the
true definition of the old adage, “You are
what you eat.”
Approximately 90 percent of the body’s
serotonin is located in your gut. Serotonin
helps regulate mood, sleep, and learning
and can influence your happiness and selfesteem. Serotonin also plays a critical role
in digestion by helping to secrete enzymes
that help you digest food.
Your gut sends signals to your brain that
directly affect feelings of sadness or stress,

even influencing learning, memory, and
your ability to make decisions. In turn, your
brain’s emotions affect your digestive tract.
Anger, anxiety, sadness, joy, and other
emotions can trigger symptoms in your gut.
Today, more studies are showing that food
affects mood and that gut health has a big
impact on disease, including osteoporosis,
autism, depression, and autoimmune
conditions.

Here are three studies that
further highlight the gutbrain connection:

1.

W
 hat you put in your stomach
can change your mood. A study

by Belgian scientists
found that eating fat
has the power to lift
our emotional state and
make us feel happier.58
This is why people go for comfort food
when they’re upset.

2

.  hronic stress can create gutC
to-brain cravings. Studies on mice
showed that under
chronic social stress
(like trauma from abuse
or bullying), mice would
go for high-fat, highcalorie foods and gain more weight
than their less stressed counterparts.59
Additionally, researchers found that it
was the gut telling the brain what to eat
and not the other way around. Under
stress, the brain produces gherlin, a

71

HEALTH & WELLNESS

When you take care of your
gut, you take care of your
whole body-mind.