Dr. Trisha Pasricha

Sometimes you need to stop the upstream source and shut off the faucet, and that's looking at the gut.

Yeah, that's real physiology.

Those aren't just metaphors.

So stress, fear, excitement, these can all trigger our amygdala.

That's a certain part of the brain that's an important emotional processing hub.

It causes the amygdala to signal to another part of the brain to release a hormone called corticotrophin-releasing hormone, or CRH.

CRH does two things.

It acts on the stomach to slow it down and then it moves down to the colon and it speeds it up.

So that's why when we are on a first date, we might feel butterflies in our stomach or when we have to give a presentation like right before we suddenly have to go to the bathroom.

Why does that happen?

Right now.

Yeah.

Well, early in my career, I discovered one of the mechanisms by which this happened.

So what I did was I used a machine called an electro gastrogram.

That's

No, it's very similar to an EKG, which people use to measure the heart rate, right?

And so the heart beats at this regular rhythm of 60 beats per minute or so.

Well, it turns out your stomach is actually has its own rhythm and it's contracting at a regular rate of about three beats per minute.

But what I found is that when you're telling a lie, that regular rhythm of three beats per minute, it goes into total chaos.

It doesn't contract anymore at three beats per minute.