Our Second Brain Controls Our Stomach

Our second brain has a very powerful connection to our overall stomach health, and as we age, this connection becomes very important to us.

While most people do not realize that such a thing exists, if we step back and think about it, we have really experienced it most of our lives.

The old adage ‘we have a gut feeling” really should not be considered an adage, as it may actually be true.

Our Second Brain

How many times, when we have had to do something that makes us nervous, have we had “bugs or butterflies” in our stomach.

How many times have we actually felt sick to our stomachs right before a major presentation or an important meeting, where we were not sure what the outcome may be.

All of these symptoms have happened to all of us at some point in our lives, and the reason for it is simple; our second brain is located in our stomach.

Here are some very interesting facts, and it centers on our ENS, or our enteric nervous system.

It plays a role in both our physical as well as our mental or psychological health
It is made up of a whopping 100 million plus nerves
It is made from the same tissues as our central nervous system
It is so closely related to our brain that it acts like one system instead of two

Our ENS is more and more being referred to as “our second brain” and the biggest connection begins at birth.

The Brain-Gut Connection

During our fetal stage, it is made from the same tissues that make our main brain operate, and because of this, most of the basic makeup as well as the chemicals are almost identical.

Although it technically makes no decisions, it does do the following.

It controls thousands of hormones, neurotransmitters, as well as electrical impulses
The 100 million plus cells control the flow of blood as well as secretion to our GI tract
It literally helps us “feel” what is happening in our stomachs

What is amazing about the number of cells found in our second brain is the fact that it has more cells that we have in our spinal column.

Our spinal column helps control all of our movements, and supplies stability to our bones, joints, and muscle.

This second source has a lot more cells for reasons that most of us take for granted, as it easily communicates with our brain and handles several situations on its own.

Older Couple Listening To Music

Major Implications

It also has major implications on our overall all health, and here is what it affects.

It affects how we feel, as our digestion process is critical in this process
It also affects our moods
It is affected by stress if it becomes chronic
Our stomach or guts microbiome may become threatened

Our stomachs are the first line of defense for our immune system and what happens here can and does affect not only affect our central nervous system, it can also easily affects our moods.

The microbes that live both in our body or on it, are referred to as “microbiota”, and are the genes that make up these microbes.

What is amazing is that they actually outnumber our human genes by a 100 to 1 ratio and they are constantly moving and changing.

Wow—take a minute to think about that; 100 to 1.

Where we live, our overall health, stress and pressure, as well as our age, all affect their overall composition.

What New Research Shows

While the data that is emerging on our second brain is relatively new, just in the past few years it has continuously expanded with new research.

It has shown in test after test that our guts microbiome can and does affect the following issues within our body.

It can affect our immune system
It affects our body weight, composition, and fat levels
It affects our memory and overall mental health
It can and does affect our ability to fight disease

Just a few short years ago they were considered to be something that needed to be controlled and eliminated, but that has all changed now.

We Must Live With Them

Instead, these recent studies have shown that we must not only live with them, we are literally surrounded by them, and they are keys to our health and this second mind.

It is now believed that not only should we not try to destroy them, we need them to remain healthy to fight off disease.

This is one of the major reasons that as we all begin to age, we need to fully understand this process and keep researching it on our own.

However, although new evidence is found every day, there are some facts that have been proven for several years now.

They include the following.

Pharmaceutical drugs are damaging them
Environmental chemicals, primarily smoking, kills them
Bad diets affect their ability to help

Once they become weak or fall out of balance, it can and does open the door for several forms of disease and other challenging conditions.

Several experts also agree with the new research, that our second brain cannot function properly without them.

Has It Affected You?

This huge army of microbiome not only helps maintain the flow of vitamin and nutrients to our body, they also help to fight all kinds of infections.

I personally find this part of this topic very interesting.

Only a few short years ago they were considered to be part of the problem, not the solution to the problem, and we may have all experienced some of the impacts as we get older.

They also help our second brain to communicate with our T-cells.

Our T-cells are natural born killers and are the key to our immune system and its health. Because this second source is located in our stomach, it does the following with ease.

It tells our T-cells know the difference between bad and the good invaders
They help our protect our genes and let them do what they were designed to do
By doing this, they are actually controlling our genes
This reduces our chances of cancer.

We have all heard throughout our lives that “we are what we eat”.

We have also heard the messages that our second brain has sent us we get upset to our stomachs from pressure or simply get the butterflies.

But the” gut feeling” we have all heard about is no longer an adage; it is now a very real and interesting fact that is catching a lot of medical attention.

How has it affected you?