Dr. Trisha Pasricha

It is in contact all the time with things that we've come from the outside world.

And so it's protecting you against the outside world.

The gut is also doing more.

It's also producing hormones.

And so it's responsible for the hormones that regulate your blood sugar, for example, and also influence your mood.

And then the other big thing, which I talk about all the time, is that your gut is a brain.

It is the home to the enteric nervous system.

Enteric nervous system?

Enteric nervous system.

You've probably heard of the central nervous system.

That's the brain in your head.

But your gut has its own nervous system.

Millions of nerve cells that are in communication with each other.

They're in responding to signals from the outside world.

And then they're communicating with the brain in your head through this long, I want you to imagine a long, windy nerve.

coming down from the brain, making its way to every organ inside your chest cavity, your abdominal cavity, and all through your gut.

That's the vagus nerve.

Yeah.

We've known that the gut and the brain have been in communications for over a century.

If you go back to the 1890s, 1890s, you'll see in doctor's journals, they were talking about how it seemed like things like emotional stress seemed to cause this response of all places inside the gut.