Gut is our second brain and how to do something with it

We have 3 brains, to put it bluntly. The main brain you know, there are about 80 billion nerve cells in there. Some have slightly more than others. It's more about the connections made between them. These determine whether you can do things more easily or think more skillfully. There are many factors that contribute to this, they don't just have to do with your brain. Everyone knows this, hopefully.

But what many people don't know is that we have 2 more brains. We have the heart, the little brain this is called, with 40 thousand nerve cells. This has its own neural network that allows it to beat on its own.

Much is driven by your brain, but your heart can beat on its own.

Then we have our gut brain, or in other words, the intestines. The intestines are also not controlled by the brain. The gut has 100 million nerve cells and has its own network. Even much more than the heart.

Maybe a strange talk, but in the morgue they knew this a long time ago, because when someone has died that process goes on underneath for a while, if you know what I mean... We don't really want to know that at all, but those intestines think yes fine everything is dead, but I still have to work this out you know? Maybe a bit of a strange thought. But that's because of that gut brain, which works by itself. Now what is so interesting about the gut brain? They are now discovering more and more in neurogastroenterology! In other words, studying the brain in the gut. That's becoming a whole new field of study.

Gut and its effect on disorders

This “gut brain” also functions independently. Neurologists are discovering more and more about it. There is an entirely new field of study dedicated to the gut brain. For example, depression doesn’t start in your head, but in your gut. That’s because serotonin isn’t stored in your head. 95% of all serotonin is found in your gut, so that’s where you need to look.

Then when people say there is a substance missing in your head, that is only 5% of 100% because the rest is in your gut.

So that's kind of interesting.

They’ve also discovered that 70% of children with autism have gut problems. Now they’re investigating whether there’s a connection. Personally, I think there is, and that there’s a great deal to be gained and learned from the gut brain.

Scientists mainly indicate that gut flora is disturbed in people with autism[1].

Solving mental problems with your gut brain

What can you do with this information? So sometimes you don't have to think that everything is between your ears. Maybe your problem is actually in your gut? In your gut.

What does this mean? If you want to change something, you can do it in a different way—for example, through diet. If you eat McDonald’s all day long, you can be sure that this will cause problems.

That this can lead to depression and anxiety.

And then you may think yes what does the Big Mac have to do with that? Once the intestines don't get enough nutrients so they go on tilt and they send signals that you don't feel good. So if you eat shit, you're going to feel shit mentally too! That's actually not higher math either, but a lot of people forget that. Suppose you start doing things differently and eat lots of vitamins, minerals and especially lots of vegetables, then within a few weeks you will feel very different. Just do it and see what's left of your depression. It might improve or in some people it might be completely gone.

The gut is not getting enough nutrients and can then go on tilt and start sending signals to your head.

90% of all signals between your head and belly go from belly to head. So that belly that gives signals of how you feel. So if you eat shit, you're going to feel shit.

A lot of people forget this.

Not only that! But it also allows you to address your mental problems, perhaps even your physical ones.

Imagine that you ’re about to start eating a lot of vegetables. Lots of vitamins, minerals, but above all, lots of vegetables. For example, 500 grams of vegetables a day.

Just do this for a few weeks and see how you feel then. You just might find that you feel much better then. That depression will be completely gone.

Influencing your gut brain from your head

The second is to influence your gut from your head. This is different, of course, because it is only 10% of the communication between the head and the gut.

The best way to influence this is through visualizations and hypnosis. Under hypnosis, you can influence your intestines—and even everything else in your body. You can give your intestines positive suggestions. You visualize things to which your intestines can react immediately.

To your brain, both the one in your head and in your gut, it doesn't matter if something is real or fantasy. So if you make a visualization, for example, to something that gives peace of mind you can even solve all kinds of gut problems.

For example, the visualizations are used to resolve problems with spastic colon (or irritable bowel syndrome).

Scientific research even shows that hypnosis is pretty much the only treatment that consistently leads to improvements in symptoms and can even reduce secondary symptoms, such as insecurity[2].

Not only that. You can also address your mental issues, perhaps even other physical problems, with it.

The gut brain is a very interesting brain to connect with sometime and with hypnosis it can be done quite easily.

A fun little study also showed that visualizations directly affect your gut behavior. Participants had to visualize that they were eating all kinds of delicious food. The most delicious cakes, pizza or whatever anyone likes. At that moment, much more stomach acid was produced, just like when you actually eat something.

When people then used hypnosis to relax and not think about food this again lowered the amount of stomach acid produced. This was compared to a group that did not do this with hypnosis and the differences were large (10%) and significant. So it was really down to the hypnosis exercises and visualizations[3].

Be sure to listen to this podcast as well.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/195236/852975-je-tweede-brein

The influence of your gut on your development

So your gut flora affects such things as the development of autism and the like, but research into this is still in its infancy.

Researchers have raised small animals in a sterile environment to see how your gut flora affects your gut brain and further development. So far there is evidence that your gut influences the development of your emotional behavior, stress and pain systems, and brain neurotransmitter systems.

That’s quite a bit of influence, and it also explains why your gut brain can affect conditions such as depression (because the stress response system isn’t functioning properly), autism (because emotional development has been disrupted), and even your cognitive abilities.

Scientists are currently particularly interested in looking at the influence of the gut on autism, anxiety, depression and Parkinson's disease[4].

Belly brain and fears

Your gut brain is also influenced by your gut flora, which clearly affects anxiety in mice; and in healthy people, an improvement in gut flora has also been linked to altered brain activity in the parts of the brain that regulate emotions.

In particular, eating fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt and buttermilk could (at the moment, theoretically) reduce anxiety.

Stress and your gut

Your gut can influence stress—just think about how reducing anxiety reduces stress—but stress can also affect your gut. In mice, for example, stress causes a decrease in certain bacteria that keep your gut healthy.

People with depression—which can result from prolonged stress—also have different gut flora than people without depression. As a result, people with depression are also more likely to suffer from inflammation in the body than people without depression.

Therefore, it is also very important to reduce stress with your head so that it cannot affect your gut brain and gut. Then the situation can only get worse[5].

Hypnosis also works incredibly well against stress through relaxation exercises. In addition, hypnosis allows you to check which beliefs are causing stress and whether the information of those beliefs is accurate.

For example, do you feel stressed at work because you think you can’t call in sick? In that case, a hypnotherapist can help you figure out why you’re afraid to call in sick, or why you find it difficult to set boundaries.

You can then use hypnosis to change that information, the reason why, in your brain, eliminating that fear of calling in sick or indicating your limits. In this way, hypnosis also reduces stress, which in turn is good for your gut brain.

Parkinson's disease and your gut

There are a number of things that indicate you are more likely to develop Parkinson's namely depression and constipation. At least 1 of these 2 clearly has to do with an abdominal brain that no longer "pushes things along" properly. This may even be going on more than 10 years before you are diagnosed with Parkinson's.

New evidence even indicates that certain signals from the gut brain to the vagus nerve and overall nervous system are indicative of Parkinson's, and that the very signals from the gut brain can be altered by environmental factors, such as the food you eat or what your gut flora is like. Now they don't think Parkinson's starts in your head, but rather in your gut brain, which eventually causes your dopamine system to degenerate causing you to tremble so incredibly[6].

Only recently has research begun to examine the impact of hypnosis on Parkinson’s disease. A case study shows that hypnosis, combined with self-hypnosis, reduces tremors by 94% and can also alleviate or improve other symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, sleep quality, pain, stiffness, libido, and quality of life[7].

So the gut brain has a lot of influence on your emotions, symptoms and even the development of certain diseases. Hypnosis can play a role in keeping your gut brain working and calm, allowing you to experience fewer symptoms.

Want to learn more about how hypnosis works? Then come to the online master class on hypnosis.

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[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-012-0337-0

[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00029157.2005.10401481

[3] https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43363666.pdf

[4] https://www.jci.org/articles/view/76304

[5] https://www.goodsky.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Gut-Brain-Axis-Diet-Article-GREG.pdf

[6] https://tahomaclinic.com/Private/Articles4/Parkinsons/Klingelhoefer%202015%20-%20Pathogenesis%20of%20Parkinson%20disease%20-%20the%20gut-brain%20axis%20and%20environmental%20factors.pdf

[7] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207144.2013.753829