The Gut-Brain Connection
Immune System
The vast majority, we’re talking seventy to eighty percent, of immune cells are housed in the gut. The immune system is the master control center of inflammation in the body. While acute inflammation can be necessary for healing, chronic inflammation leads to disease. When inflammation is triggered in the gut by a multitude of perpetrators, cytokines are called upon to protect the body. However, these cytokines can damage cells, especially brain cells and neurons, causing an indisputable connection between gut health and depression anxiety.
Chemical Imbalance
Most of your neurotransmitters are produced in your gut, including up to ninety-five percent of serotonin. Yes, this “happy chemical” is largely dependent upon gut health. Under times of stress or inflammation, the body will use the precursors for serotonin and dopamine (feel-good chemicals), to build less than satisfying chemicals. These cause anxiety, depression, and many other symptoms. This fact alone builds and a sturdy case for the gut health depression link.
The Gut Talks to the Brain
The gut and brain are intimately connected not only via nerve fibers, but through chemical messengers such as cytokines. Those cytokines travel to all parts of the body, from your toes to your (you guessed it) brain! Interestingly, it has been discovered that Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients show increased permeability of both the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the intestine. Patients with progressive MS showed increased levels of serum zonulin, while those with relapsing-remitting MS who were in remission showed serum zonulin levels similar to controls. Gut/Brain Axis
Need more proof that mood disorders can begin in the gut? Studies show that seventy to ninety percent of those diagnosed with IBS also have a psychiatric comorbidity. It’s clear that gut health and mental health are completely intertwined. WOW!
Have you ever had “butterflies” in your stomach, or even diarrhea in an extremely stressful situation? This is just one of the examples that show us how the gut and brain are connected. We already know that messages can travel from brain to the gut. Brand new studies are showing that the large majority of the signals actually travel from the gut to the brain! This implicates that possible neurological disease may start in the gut. In fact, many now believe that Parkinson’s Disease has beginnings in the gut, and works upwards into the brain.