Dr. Diego Bohórquez

Well, Andrew, thank you so much for having me here.

I'm thrilled to be here.

I knew that since we met a few years ago that we will have this ongoing conversation and a great conversation.

So the gut and the brain, you know, people call it an axis because traditionally it's thought to be an imaginary line that was connected through hormones.

So since 1902, when the first hormone secretion was reported by Bayley's and Sterling, the

It was known that when we eat, then hormones, these molecules in the gut are released and then they will enter the bloodstream and then eventually will have a cause in distant organs.

And for the next hundred or so years, the field focused on the hormones.

And as a consequence, there was no direct line of communication between hormones.

the gut and the brain.

But as often I say, you don't, you don't say, or we don't say the nose brain axis, right?

Like, or the eye brain axis, right?

And all of the organs are in sync, working in sync.

So in the gut, there are also some sensory cells that are able to detect the outside world and then quickly communicate that information to the brain.

And I say the outside world because the gut is the only organ that passes throughout our body, but it is still exposed to the outside.

If you think about it, if you swallow a marble, it still has the chance to get out.

Please don't do that, anybody.

The gut is.

And if you think about it, it's just separated by some compartments.

that have all of these valves, the epiglottis, the gastroesophageal junction, the pylorus, the ileocecal junction, the rectum.

That's correct.