The Enteric Nervous System – The Hidden Brain
The enteric nervous system is actually a second brain that many people never knew they had. However, although it has not been scientifically proven and studied up until fairly recently, we have all had the experience of having certain gut feelings about a situation or of having butterflies in the stomach when we are nervous about something. However, although these feelings, along with various digestive symptoms, used to not be taken too seriously, we are now discovering that the cells and tissues in our stomach actually do have “a mind of their own” and that we should begin taking its messages more seriously.
One of the interesting things that were discovered when studying the enteric system was that the same neurotransmitters that are present in the brain take up residence in the gut as well. By learning that chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, and norepinephrine are located within our enteric nervous system, physicians and scientists have had no choice but to acknowledge the fact that there is some actual basis to our gut feelings and reactions that have, up until this point, been fairly hard to explain. These findings have not only validated these “hunches” but they also play an important role in helping us navigate our own lives as well as in helping to treat various disorders of the digestive tract.
However, although our enteric system makes up a second brain, this does not mean that the two structures are functioning as separate entities. In fact, the two brains are linked quite heavily and influence each other in many regards. This means that feeling nervous or being put in a stressful or uncomfortable situation will inevitably cause some bit of intestinal distress and that issues in our stomach can cause a significant amount of mental discomfort as well. Because of the potential implications of the enteric nervous system and what we typically think of as our brain, these two areas of the body need to be studied separately as well as in conjunction with one another.
Although there is still much to learn about our enteric nervous system, we can still use the current research in helping to alleviate intestinal and mental distress, as well as helping us to run our lives more productively. By knowing that our gut feelings are just as valid as any ideas that we come up with logically, we can actually listen to the information being given to us by our enteric system. Alternately, we can use our mind to help heal problems occurring in our digestive tract.
Thomas Inglis Smith is a qualified counsellor, hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner and life coach specialising in addictions. He also produces audio hypnosis recordings. For a free ‘recession busting’ hypnosis download please visit Self Hypnosis Downloads