How the Gut Controls the Brain [ #25 #GutHealth #MindBody ]

Welcome to the Own It Podcast with me, Nicole Hollar, where we're going to talk about stuff to help you get out of your way, take charge of your life, and, well, other stuff too. Hey everyone, thank you for joining me for another episode of the Own It Podcast. I have to tell you, today in my office I have no air conditioning, so I'm pretty hot right now, but that's okay. I really wanted to do this podcast, so we're going to get it done. Today I want to talk about how the gut and the brain work together. And it's a really neat thing because when we talk all about wellness and fitness or, you know, personal development, it doesn't matter. Everything works together. They all, you know, kind of interact. Well, in this particular case, I want to talk about the gut and the brain connection because sometimes we fail to realize that there's a component of emotion when it comes to food. As well as physiology when it comes to food. Pretty much everybody knows the brain is the command center of the body, and it uses the vagus nerve to communicate with most of the body, including the majority of the digestive tract. Now, that brain communicates things like fight or flight, and I know everybody has felt it because we've all had butterflies in our stomach at some point, right? Or you've felt your heart racing or short of breath, or maybe you're so stressed out that you're going to vomit. Well, that really shows you that these emotional states land in our gut. Well, that communication between the gut and brain is pretty profound. In fact, science has shown that 80 to 90% of the communication in that enteric nervous system, which is between the esophagus and the anus, goes from the gut to the brain. Now, the enteric nervous system Also known as the intrinsic nervous system, is part of the autonomic nervous system. And what that is, it, it manages involuntary things like breathing, your heart rate, arousal, your blood pressure, and digestion. Of the autonomic nervous system, we have 3 divisions. We have our parasympathetic, our sympathetic, and our enteric system. Now the enteric system Is basically your gastrointestinal tract, your pancreas, and your gallbladder. The enteric system is pretty, pretty profound. It has more than 100 million neurons, and that's actually more neurons than nerves in the spinal cord. So put that in perspective. That system has more nerves than your actual spinal cord. And in fact, the vagus nerve, which I mentioned, controls most of those things. Well, if you cut it, digestion will continue on its own. So it really goes to show you how powerful the gut and that system is. And if we consider why it's so powerful, and I'm going to move over to the parasympathetic system for a minute. Have you ever had a friend who's kind of drunk and they're vomiting and you're like, I'm there for you, friend. And you're like rubbing their back, or if you're a girl, holding their hair back. And you're trying to not join them because what's neat about it, or maybe it's your kid, right? Let's Get it out of the junk scene. Um, and they're vomiting and you're kind of like, oh, I'm trying to hold it back. The parasympathetic system is kind of cool because, you know, in a, in a primitive colonization of people living together in community, your body is going, oh my gosh, somebody in my general community who's probably eaten or ingested something that I've eaten is getting sick and their body's probably trying to get rid of it because they're so sick. I should get rid of it too. Whatever it is. Now, that may not be the case when it's your kid or your kind of drunk friend, or maybe it is, but that's the power of these systems. If we go back to the enteric system and why it's so powerful, you have to consider that before food safety, we had to determine if something was safe to eat, like I said, if it provided proper fuel and all of that good stuff. Because we were limited in what we could eat and where we could find it. So the direct communication from the gut would tell our brains this. Plus, your body releases dopamine when it eats things like fat and sugar, and that's that feel-good chemical. You generally aren't like, mm, I really want steamed broccoli when I'm icky and I want to feel good. And that's one of the cycles of people with weight. They don't feel so great about whatever's going on, whether they realize it or not. And then they continue to eat not so great food for us because in that moment it feels good. And those are excellent fuel sources, fats and sugars. The problem though, is that with our gut telling us that it likes these fuel-rich foods, is that at this point in most people's lives, we don't have the same kind of fuel scarcity that we may have when our primitive body had to be in the survival mode. In the case of famine. Now, this is for most people, I realize, and not everybody. Now, not only does your gut communicate to the brain, its microbes produce about 50% of your body's dopamine and about 90% of its serotonin. And those are the neurons or the neurotransmitters that affect things like your mood, your appetite, your digestion, your sleep, and your memory. So what we eat affects all of these systems. And on top of that, your gut's microbes are deceiving you. They're manipulating you. And I'll give you an example. I don't really drink a lot of beer. We have like 2 in the fridge that'll probably go bad before we drink them. But every now and then, because I live in South Florida, I'm like, a cold beer could be good after I've mowed my lawn in August. So I might drink one. Only then, that following day, say a Sunday, might I go, hmm, randomly for no reason, I might want a beer. And it's because my gut biome has said, hey, I drank a beer. The body had to have certain bacteria and microbes available to manage said beer. And now because those microbes want to survive, they're telling your brain, drink more beer. Or in the case, it could be More cake, more chips, more broccoli. It doesn't really matter what it is because have you ever noticed if you're eating more clean, you want to eat more clean? If you're eating more lean, you tend to want to eat more lean. Now, this is blowing out the whole idea of feeling deprived and like you're not allowed. That's a different conversation. But generally speaking, if you're eating cleaner foods, you want to continue to eat cleaner foods. Because that bacteria and microbe system or microbiome is saying, hey brain, eat more of those things because we want to continue to propagate. We just went on a vacation to Europe where the food is real different. I actually asked the concierge one night because after about 4 days, we're like, I need like a salad. And he was stumped. He's like, uh, a salad, like steamed vegetables. Now we did find some, but it wasn't. As common in the culture where we were. So that's how, how the microbes also manipulate us. So there's these, there are these physiological factors. Now I want you to keep in mind, and we've talked about it before, eating clean, it promotes more energy, it promotes more focus, it promotes better sleep. So when you eat more frequently, we tend to eat fewer starch and fat And sugar-laden foods because we're giving our body a consistent source of fuel for that fuel scarcity. And as a result, we tend to be able to eat cleaner, less fatty, less salty, less sugary foods because we're maintaining our glucose levels. And as a result, it actually helps to promote more energy and better sleep. So consider some of the times in your life where you've gone, oh yeah, I've been on a pretty good kick and then I fall off. And then those types of foods are saying, hey brain, eat more of the same. So what's interesting too, there's been a lot of science and research. Hopkins, as a matter of fact, did a study showing that people with chronic constipation, they actually are more prone to headaches and depressive states. So this brain and gut connection is, is really profound. And I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Because what we eat isn't just about, am I going to be leaner or have less body fat? Will it help me lose weight? It truly affects how we function. They did studies on laboratory mice that had no bacteria to colonize their gut with. And then when they introduced good bacteria, it actually increased their serotonin levels. And then Those mice showed specific improvements in their stress levels, and they also had improved memory and learning, which I think is pretty cool. When the— those mice, when the vagus nerve was severed in them, the improvements though disappeared. So that just shows us that the origin of those improvements actually came from the gut. So that's pretty cool. And it really does directly show us that our mood and our sleep. And our memory are directly impacted by the foods that we eat. So next time you're glum or you're tired, be sure to let your real brain make the real decision about what you want to eat versus that mini brain in your gut. Because what we often do is when we're feeling in an icky mood, we tend to eat foods to make us physically feel in an icky mood too. So keep that in mind next time you're like, ah, I kind of want blah food, you know, not so great for us food when you're having a blah mood and do your best to go make a cleaner, leaner, more healthy choice. And that will also help to improve your mood and where you're at. I'm going to leave that for today. As always, you can find me on most social media platforms at Nicole Hollar Coaching and my website, nicoleholler.com. Where you can book me for workshop speaking events, and as well as check out books and other, uh, things and happenings, uh, surrounding my coaching. Have a great day. This is your time.