GUT is More Than You Think-Part Two
In this part two of the book Gut, we learn practical tips to manage gut induced issues like reflex and vomiting and delving into fundamental aspects of our gut formation and st.
If you haven’t read the part one, you do so here. It gives a brief background and my intent for choosing the topic before reflecting the book’s wisdom to you. You will like it.
There is a muscle in our bodies which we can’t control. Scientists call it smooth muscle. Intuitively we don’t normally think about the body’s inside and smoothness in the same thought; the two things don’t seem to blend. But for the variety of stuff we can eat, willingly or accidentally, the nature has designed our complex systems with even weirder characteristics.
Imagine you eat a cake, once it goes down our tongue, it has disappeared. No taste or feel while it’s traveling down. Now, it has entered the realm of smooth muscle. Its structure (like a wave) is different from the muscles we consciously control like our biceps (tiny fibres neatly lined straight).
Did you know?
The rumbling tummy, which, contrary to popular belief, does not come mainly from the stomach, but from the small intestine.
Our large intestine dances two or three times a day to push the waste through. If you have put in much bulk, it’s likely that you would visit loo two or three times a day. It’s natural. However, for most of us, the contents of the large intestine are enough for one bowel movement a day.
Did you know?
Women’s large intestines are slightly more lethargic than men’s.
Generally, a food item takes a day from fork to flush.
Acid Reflux
Two different nervous systems work in oesophagus and stomach area. Brain controls the gastric-acid production and sphincter between the oesophagus and stomach while nerves in the digestive tract ensures that the oesophagus keeps downward movement of the food. A disharmony between the two causes the reflux.
Relaxation along with sipping or eating small but repeated swallows helps set the balance. These are the practical tips to manage reflux.
Did you know?
Cigarettes and eating activate the same area of the brain. So smoking gives a false sense of satisfaction without having eaten anything. This causes acid to go up for food digestion (false alarm), as well as sphincter between the oesophagus and stomach to relax.
Though the pain and burning caused by rise in acid through the oesophagus causes worry. But this isn’t a real danger. Cause of concern is when bile reaches the oesophagus from the small intestine via stomach. Bile doesn’t even cause burning sensation. But the cells in oesophagus get confused as to whether they are gastrointestinal ones or oesophagus ones. There is a chance for mutation and that’s insidious. Though it happens in a tiny percentage of cases.
Some strategies given in the book to counter vomiting: -
While traveling, keep your eyes fixed on wide horizon
Listen to music on headphones
Ginger
P6 (an acupuncture point recognised by western medicine too). Check the image below.
The Brain and The Gut
What’s the fundamental purpose of our brains?
Many would think they know the answer. Obviously, many do. But, the question here is that for what purpose our brains have evolved the way they are?
Answer could lie in Sea Squirts. Us and them belong to the same family of chordate phylum. Like us, it has a brain and spinal cord which helps it sense the surroundings to manoeuvre through signalling.
Did you know?
Once a sea squirt finds a suitable place to settle, after navigating the deep sea, the first thing it does is eats up its own brain. Because the brain’s main function is to keep it moving until the destination is reached. After that, its brain is surplus to the requirements. Quite fascinating, isn’t it?
Daniel Wolpert- an engineer, a medical doctor, and a scientist- has a theory inspired by the sea squirt’s attitude to having a brain. It says that the only reason for having a brain is to enable movement.
We take pride in the complex tasks our brains can perform from philosophizing, language, imagination to problem solving. Scientists have begun to question the view that the “brain is the sole and absolute ruler of the body.” Our gut has an unimaginable number of nerves which are different from the rest of the body. Only the brain matches the gut in the diversity of the nerve network.
Signals from the gut reach different parts of the brain but not every part because you don’t want those signals to reach your visual cortex. The most important and fastest nerve in the gut-brain connection is ‘vagus nerve’ which runs through the diaphragm, between the lungs and the heart, up along the oesophagus.
Did you know?
Our gut is the body’s largest sensory organ. It transmits the important information to the brain through the vagus nerve.
The first study of connection between the gut and the brain was published in 2013 where researchers found that after 04 weeks of gulping specific bacteria, some areas of the brain were altered, especially the areas related with emotions and pain. This shows how recent the awareness of the gut’s role in mental state is. Until science reaches conclusive ends in how gut feeling really works, the research is going on hotly, there is no point in mentioning a couple of theories related to stress which the book mentions. One thing is sure that 95% of the serotonin is produced in the gut which has a huge bearing on stress and depression. Prioritize calmer meal times over anything; it’s best if this value is given in the childhood itself, says the book.
Where the ‘self’ originates
One credit you’ve to give while reading this book is the choice of topics it touches upon as a science awareness book. Insular cortex aka insula is a fascinating part of the brain. Apart from receiving signals from the gut too, it was also a topic of study for over 20 years by one of the prominent neuroscientists viz. Bud Craig. He gave the theory that human self-awareness originates in the insular cortex. This hypothesis consists of 03 parts:
Insula creates a map of our feelings after receiving pixel-like information of feelings to form an overall image. Eg.- Sitting on a chair, we feel the bum pressing against it along with any feeling of cold or hunger etc. This feeling map is created by the insula.
Movement is one of the brain’s crucial functions which produces an effect. The brain resorts to insula’s map to plan meaningful movement. Following the example in point (1), the feelings we might develop in a particular situation affect us to change appropriate action as per our need or desire.
In addition to creating an image of the body, the insula also eyes the areas in its vicinity, especially the social areas of the brain responsible for empathy, morality, and logic. In a given situation, it helps in not just feeling the feeling but also to contextualize it.
Did you know?
Insula creates a picture of our entire feeling body and as per Bud Craig, the picture is ‘refreshed’ approximately every forty seconds.
The development of our gut flora
The womb we take shape in is the most germ-free environment we are ever in. We get pre-breathed air and pre-digested food. Not a single parasite, virus, bacterium, fungus, or any person can touch us. After we are out, we lose the protection we would never get again. In terms of microbiota, we reach ‘adulthood’ around the age of 03.
Did you know?
100% of our cells are human cells when we start life. Slowly, so many microorganisms colonize us that only 10% of us remain as human cells.
Some categorization for basics: -
Two categories- living and non-living
Three categories of living- eukaryotes, archaea, and bacteria
All three have their representatives in our gut.
Archaea’s one species is found in our gut which lives off of the waste products of bacteria and glow.
Bacteria make up more than 90% of our gut population. They mainly belong to 05 families of phyla: Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia.
Six categories of eukaryotes- (1) amoeboid microbes, (2) microbes with pseudopodia (foot-like protrusions that aren’t real feet), (3) plant-like organisms, (4) single-celled organisms, (5) algae, and (6) opisthokont (Greek words for ‘rear’ and ‘pole’)
For our understanding here, the 6th category is important. (I’ve never read/heard this word before, either.) Opisthokont group includes all animals- including us- and also fungi. Most common eukaryotes found in our gut are yeasts, which are also opisthokonts.
“Now, we know that we aren’t merely animals, or social animals, we are OPISTHOKONTS! One more refinement gained in our categorisation of ourselves.”
The Genes of our Gut Bacteria
“Genes are possibilities. Genes are information. Genes can be dominant, forcing features on us or they can just offer their abilities for us to use or not.”-Giulia Enders
Biome- Collection of genes in our gut bacteria (which has 150 times more genes than a human being).
Nature has endowed us with bacterial genes for a reason perhaps: they are easy to swallow through mouth, unfurl their abilities in the gut, and can adapt to our lifestyles. There are fundamental differences between the bodies, and the body's response to certain diets, of people based on descent. These differences can’t be attributed to genetic differences but prominently to the gut bacteria differences. It would be a big achievement if science could locate and understand the specific bacterial genes and their link to our health. An important step in this direction was the discovery of the three enterotypes in 2011 among Asians, Americans, and Europeans: Bacteroides, Prevotella, and Ruminococcus.
A person’s enterotype depends on the bacterial family responsible for major microbial production in our gut. Enterotyping would help doctors predict a whole range of body characteristics like susceptibility to diseases, food tolerance and nerve resilience etc.
At the end of this second part, also the second last part, you can see that the first half of this article gives some benefits for the most common of the gastro issues and the second half touches upon some fundamental aspects of our gut. I’ve introduced the ‘did you know’ section which corresponds to the questions I’ve marked in the book as it is. Questions are one of the tools I use as an effective way of note making and now proving to be helpful in note sharing through this article.
Till the final part of this book is published, I wish you stay mindful of your gut health and take care of yourself with health appropriate behaviour. Soon, I’ll be covering the health based wisdom I’ve acquired from the knowledge sources.