April 22, 2025 • 22 mins
Your gut is constantly speaking to your brain—and it has far more to say than you might think. In this deep dive into the gut-brain connection, Dr. Enrico Dolcecore reveals the surprising science behind why your digestive system is often called your "second brain," and why this relationship matters profoundly for both mental and physical wellbeing.
Most people are shocked to discover that 90% of the communication between gut and brain travels from the gut upward, not the other way around. Through the vast highway known as the vagus nerve, your gut microbiome—those trillions of bacteria living in your digestive tract—produce neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine that directly impact your mood, cognition, and emotional regulation. In fact, a remarkable 95% of your body's serotonin is manufactured not in your brain, but in your gut.
When this communication system falls out of balance, the consequences can be far-reaching. Anxiety, depression, brain fog, chronic inflammation, autoimmune conditions, and even neurodegenerative diseases may all have roots in gut dysfunction. The good news? You can take specific steps to optimize this connection. Dr. Dolcecore outlines five evidence-based strategies: adopting a gut-friendly diet rich in fiber and fermented foods, managing stress effectively, incorporating prebiotics and probiotics strategically, engaging in regular physical activity, and prioritizing quality sleep. Even simple practices like taking a short walk after meals—common in many cultures worldwide—can have significant benefits.
For those experiencing persistent gut-brain issues, functional medicine approaches offer deeper insights through specialized testing that can map your unique gut landscape and guide targeted interventions. Whether you're dealing with mood disorders, digestive problems, or simply want to optimize your health, understanding and nurturing your gut-brain connection could be the missing piece in your wellness journey. Reach out to Full Life Chiropractic for personalized support in addressing root causes rather than just managing symptoms.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Did you know that the gut is often called your second
brain?
Well, it's not just a catchyphrase.
There's real science behind it.
Today we're diving into theamazing gut-brain connection and
what it means for your health.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori.
Thanks for joining us onanother episode of Living a Full
Life.
We've been slowly andunwillingly getting into this
(00:27):
discussion about the gut and thebrain and the microbiome and
health and helping our kids, andit's just naturally spurring up
questions about well, what isthis gut thing?
What is this gut brainconnection?
How does it work?
And I've realized we've neverreally divvied into the science
about how it actually works.
So on today's episode we'll beexploring how the gut
(00:49):
communicates with the brain,what happens when its connection
goes array, and how you cankeep both systems in tip-top
shape for a healthier, happierlife for you and your family and
your children.
The gut and the brain areconnected via a vast network of
nerves, hormones and chemicalmessengers, and they communicate
(01:12):
constantly.
The gut has its own nervoussystem, called the enteric
system, actually the entericnervous system, and this network
is often referred to as thesecond brain.
The mesenteric system is theconnection between the gut and
the brain.
(01:32):
So the nervous system.
The central nervous system isyour actual brain that sits in
your skull and the spinal cord.
Those two together areconsidered your central nervous
system.
The enteric system is theneural plexus around the gut and
the intestine and what thatdoes is it communicates via the
(01:52):
two nervous systems, via themesenteric system, the middle
ground of the enteric and thebrain, and it's connected by the
vagus nerve.
We'll talk about the vagusnerve in detail and how it's the
primary pathway forcommunication between the gut
and the brain.
It's actually responsible forcarrying messages in both
directions.
(02:12):
That's interesting.
We've always thought that thebrain connects everything and
tells the body what to do, butas science keeps moving forward,
we realize that it's a two-waysuperhighway between many
systems, not just the gut or thecardiovascular system.
It's a two-way nervous systemsuperhighway that no fiber optic
(02:33):
cable or anything in the worldhas ever been created to match
its speed, its precision and itsintegrity, and I don't think
we're anywhere close.
But this superhighway goes backand forth and the vagus nerve
plays the relaying signals tothe brain and it plays a vital
role between the two.
A lot of research recently, inthe last 20 years, has shown
(02:54):
that vagal stimulation and howwe can actually affect the vagus
nerve may help people in someways from a whole bunch of
things that we can go into, fromcognition, mood and even
inflammation.
So the vagus nerve's primarypathway is to communicate.
And did you know that 90% ofthe fibers in the vagus nerve
(03:17):
send information from the gut tothe brain, not the other way
around?
That's a major clue that thegut might have more power over
our mental health than we everthought.
It's not an equal highway, it'sa 16 lane highway to the brain
and a two lane highway to thegut from the brain.
Very interesting on how muchinformation is relayed back by
(03:39):
the enteric system.
Gut microbiome influence on thebrain has been exhaustively
expressed over not just theselast few podcasts, but across
science everywhere.
Probiotics have been around for40 years talking about how the
biotics in the gut play a hugerole, from putting it into your
yogurt.
Activa was sued for their falseclaims on how their probiotics
(04:02):
in there, or just yogurtprobiotics, can promote overall
health and we noticed that itdidn't really change anyone's
health, but it wasn't a badthing.
I don't know if they deserve tobe sued, but they were
considered false claims.
The bacteria in yogurt aregreat.
They can help your gut, butthey don't have any health
properties to them.
The trillions of bacteria inthe gut can influence brain
(04:25):
function.
These bacteria releaseneurotransmitters like serotonin
, dopamine and short-chain fattyacids, which play roles in mood
regulation, anxiety anddepression.
Around 95% of the body'sserotonin is produced in the gut
.
Yes, this stuff helps with yourmood, sleep and even digestion
(04:48):
is mostly made in your stomach.
The gut-brain axis is anotherpart of this mesenteric system.
The gut-brain axis concept isthat it's bidirectional
communication between the brainand the gut, affecting
everything from digestion toemotional regulation.
There's even studies across allaspects of health and science
(05:12):
and medicine from enterology,cardiovascular science, brain
science, neurology, neuroscienceshowing the connections between
the enteric and brain healthand how poor gut health, like
dysbiosis or imbalanced gutbacteria, can contribute to
(05:36):
anxiety, depression, evencognitive decline, as we see in
some of the Alzheimer's patientsand research study that's
coming out there.
When your gut is out of balance, you might feel more stressed,
anxious or even foggy.
This is because your gut issending signals to your brain
that affect your mood, emotionsand mental clarity.
(05:56):
How many of you just get angrywhen you're hungry?
That's a primal instinct and weknow it lights up the midbrain
from hunger pangs that make usgo into sympathetic.
So we run out there and huntand get some food right.
That's the primitive brain.
And we hunt and we you knowwe're warriors and we walk all
the way to the pantry or thefridge and we eat the beasts
(06:22):
that we are right.
So that's that's what we do andit's that hunger and we all
have that and I use that examplebecause I think we've all,
we've all been there, probablyrecently me this morning and you
get angry, you got to eat.
It's a natural response.
That is a natural response anda normal response for most
people.
To get anxious, to getdepressed, to get other emotions
(06:48):
, may not be natural for somepeople and that could be lead it
led to a dysbiosis in the gut,triggering other
neurotransmitters that signalother moods in our brain.
There's so much more to lookforward to when science comes
out from this, but all we can donow is really focus on gut
(07:08):
health.
With what we know and manyAmericans suffer from dysbiosis
there's also physical healthimplications that can happen
with this, like a dysfunctionalgut-brain connection could
contribute to chronic pain,inflammation, irritable bowel
syndrome and even autoimmunedisorders.
So we get physical symptoms andpathologies and diseases from
(07:31):
an imbalanced mesenteric system.
Stress plays a huge role inthis.
Not only can that cause stress,but stress can also have its
highway effect back to the gut.
It can really affect the gutbrain access.
Chronic stress can worsen guthealth and vice versa, chronic
gut health can increase stress.
(07:52):
So let's dive into how tomaintain a healthy gut, and if
you listen to the last fewpodcasts, we have some great
tips on there.
But now that we got into thescience of the enteric system,
the mesenteric system and thegut brain access, now we can
understand oh, hang on, there'sa neural complexity in here and
(08:12):
unless you're an electricalengineer, you may not be able to
visualize how this works.
If you like, electricity,frequency and static energy, and
you understand those principles.
That's how our nervous systemworks.
It works on this high pitch andlow pitch, frequency and
electrical conductance, theiractual energy between every
(08:35):
message, and it's controlledhomeostatically through tone.
And I love to teach in ouroffice the nervous system for
all of its communication.
Even the mesenteric system, theenteric system, are like guitar
.
If you play the guitar or anystring instruments, I love this
analogy of the guitar.
String has to be tuned to acertain tensile strength.
(08:58):
Once it's there, you can thendo the A key, the D key, the E
key.
You can play those tones, thosekeys, and if they're not, if
they're too loose or too tight,you'll decrease the pitch or
increase the pitch and be out oftune.
And that's our battle throughour whole lives is to maintain
(09:19):
homeostasis within our centraland peripheral nervous systems.
How do we do that?
We start with a gut-friendlydiet.
You are what you eat.
Let food be thy medicine.
Everything from thousands ofyears ago that have been written
by Hippocrates, socrates, thephilosophers, galileo we have
(09:43):
them written over and over againthrough the history books.
And what we want to do is eatmore fiber-rich foods, fermented
foods especially likesauerkraut, and add probiotics
can help keep your gutmicrobiome diverse and healthy.
That means better communicationwith your brain.
(10:04):
The more diverse your gut, thebetter the communication.
It's the more communication.
For those of you that havemarried and have been married
for years, communication is key.
The less communication you have, the more rocky, the more
indifferent the relationship canbe.
The more communication you have, the more smooth.
I'm not saying it's perfect,I'm saying the more smooth a
(10:25):
relationship can be.
And that's the same thing withthe relationship between the gut
and the brain, the morecommunication they can have.
The more diverse of amicrobiome you can have, the
more communication in many moredifferent languages can happen
between the brain.
The more languages that thebrain understands and the more
languages that the gut can speak, the better versed we are with
(10:48):
communication.
We'll understand and notmisinterpret any signals
neurotransmitters that go to thebrain to dysregulate our mood
and our behavior.
Stress management is the next onthe list and these are in order
from number one that we have todo is the diet.
You can't do anything elsewithout a proper diet If you're
just eating malnutritious foodsthat have nothing to them.
(11:10):
The thing about processed bread, processed meats, processed
carbohydrates, boxed foods cansis it's lost its vital energy.
It's lost its bacteria.
It has to be sanitized to beshelf stable.
There is nothing in it.
So when we eat this stuff it'svoid of anything new to the gut,
which is probably number one.
(11:31):
Two, it feeds a lot of the badguys in our gut too.
They love those simple carbsand those starchy things that
have low nutrition.
They love eating those up.
The good bacteria love, youknow, protein, amino acids,
fatty chains.
They love eating that stuff up.
So if we're not giving themthose, we're not giving our body
that stuff, we get intodysbiosis very quickly.
So that's the diet the mostimportant thing.
(11:53):
Number two is your stressmanagement.
You know we got to discuss somestrategies on this, like
meditation, mindfulness,exercise, quality sleep.
It's so important for guthealth.
Stress is like a villain inthis story.
It disrupts gut function andcreates a negative feedback loop
.
Reducing stress throughactivities like yoga, breathing
(12:14):
exercises or even taking a walkcan immediately benefit for your
gut and your mood.
So we got to manage stress,which is a sneaky way of me
getting in some movement andrelaxation.
Into here.
Number four, and there's onlyfive that we're going to go
through.
Number four into here.
Number four, and there's onlyfive that we're going to go
through.
Number four probiotics andprebiotics.
We've got to be rotatingthrough this through diet and
(12:38):
supplements.
There's a difference betweenprobiotics, which are live
bacteria, and prebiotics, whichare food for bacteria.
I guess out of all the podcastsI've done, I've never really
explained those two, and thatwas a great question that came
up a couple weeks ago by apatient via email saying, hey,
what's the difference betweenprebiotic and probiotic?
And I answered it very quicklyon email.
(12:59):
I don't ever think I ever saidthis on the podcast.
The prebiotics is the food forthe biome bacteria in your gut.
It's important.
We want to feed them the goodstuff so that the good bacteria
proliferate and stay there andthe bad bacteria stay at a low
volume and they work together.
So taking a prebiotic is great.
(13:22):
Usually, prebiotics come fromthe food that you eat.
So if you have a well-balanced,high-fiber diet, that's your
prebiotics.
The probiotics are live gutbacteria that you have to
introduce.
Introduce and it's only goingto come through fermented foods.
It's the only way.
Unless you like eating rottenapples and drinking spoiled milk
, you're not going to get much.
I highly recommend not doingthat.
(13:43):
You're not going to get it, soyou're going to have to put in
probiotics.
And number five is exercise.
The connection between physicalactivity and gut health is
overwhelming.
Studies are showing thatexercise can improve gut
microbiome diversity in itself,the constant breaking down.
And when you exercise you needto eat.
(14:03):
And when you exercise you needto eat nutritious food.
And when you exercise you needto eat more protein.
It's just natural what you'regoing to crave when you exercise
regularly.
And exercise is 15 to 20minutes, five days a week.
That's the start of exercise.
If you don't do that, you don'texercise.
Anything more than that is moreexercise, which is not a bad
thing.
It's a good thing.
(14:24):
So here's some gut brain triviafor you.
Did you know that about 70% ofyour immune system is located in
your gut?
We already said 90% of thecommunications from the gut to
the brain, 70% of your entireimmune system, is regulated and
controlled by your gut.
That's why keeping your guthealthy isn't just good for your
(14:46):
brain, it's good for yourimmune system.
The immune system is a wholedifferent podcast.
It's not just your nervoussystem.
Your immune system is not anorgan, it's not just one thing.
It communicates between theentire mesenteric system, which
is the largest neural pathway inthe human body.
When you combine the brain andthe enteric system, you now have
(15:07):
the largest communication byfar in the human body, and the
immune system sits within thatand other systems in the body as
well, to control everything,even the circulatory system.
So sleep how does your gutaffect sleep?
Well, if it controlsneurotransmitter disruption, it
(15:28):
can control sleep, likemelatonin.
So we want to mention the rolethat gut plays in regulating
sleep patterns due to itsinfluence on neurotransmitters
just like melatonin, serotonin,dopamine, all these things.
Serotonin plays a big role insleep.
There you go.
Those are the five things thatwe really need to work on to
(15:48):
have a healthy gut-brainconnection a gut-friendly diet,
stress management pro, and agut-friendly diet, stress
management pro.
And prebiotics, exercise andsleep.
All right, there you goJam-packed one.
I wanted to just give a podcastthat was packed, entertaining,
science-filled, neurologicallyfilled.
(16:10):
One question we get a lot iscan know, can taking probiotic
really improve my mood?
The answer is yes.
There's lots of researchshowing this.
There's growing research thatsuggests probiotics can help
improve symptoms from anxietyand depression for some people.
It's never that simple foreveryone, but for some people,
just adding that into their diethas made an overwhelming change
(16:33):
.
So what I encourage everyonethat's listening today to do is
a couple things Add probiotic orfermented foods to your diet.
Take a 10-minute walk aftermeals or in the evening.
Many cultures around the worlddo this and for us, we're in a
(16:54):
multicultural country and if youjust look outside your window
in the evenings, no matter whatneighborhood you're in, no
matter what community you livein in North America, you'll see
certain types and certaincultures going for their seven
o'clock PM walk UsuallyEuropeans, the Asian culture,
indians, africans they do this.
It's just part of their thing.
It's a post digestive thingthat they do and they actually
(17:15):
have that concept of stressmanagement post digestion and
walking after a meal.
Americans, I don't think that'sin their routine.
You shouldn't make it part ofyour routine.
They're all Americans too.
You know what I mean.
But that's where we go, thereand then try mindfulness or deep
breathing and manage stresslevels.
There you go.
(17:36):
How was that for a podcast?
The gut-brain connection alittle bit more delved into.
If you need any help with this,functional medicine is your way
to go when it comes to gut-brain.
Everyone else will waste yourtime.
No shade thrown on thesepractitioners medical nurse
(17:56):
practitioners, holisticnutritionists, nutritionists,
dieticians they're following apragmatic meal planning way of
nutrition.
Functional medicine someonewell-versed in functional
medicine, especially internalfunctional, internist and
(18:17):
internal.
Someone who's got their extradegree in this extra time.
Whether they went to medicalschool osteopathic, chiropractic
or not, not naturopathy theyshould have a designation
afterwards for internal medicineor internal functional medicine
.
That's the people you want tolook for and they will be loud
and they will be proud becausethey want to help people and you
(18:38):
luckily have access to thiswith Dr Heifer at Full Life
Chiropractic, and all this stuffcan be done virtually, because
it's gut, it's exercise, it'ssupplementation, it can all be
delivered to your home and youhave to get out and sleep and
walk and do all those simplethings.
So it's easily done.
But there's testing that can bedone, like stool testing, gut
testing and blood testing, andyou may not need all of them
(18:59):
that show everything that'sgoing on.
I just recently did a urineanalysis, taking samples through
five points of the day, in themiddle of the night morning, two
hours obviously, to showneurotransmitters Very, very
informative, way above my head.
You need someone like thatthat's trained in that to really
(19:20):
help you move forward.
So if you've been frustratedwith healthcare, we're all
frustrated with healthcare, butthere are people out there that
they don't have to write 20books to grab your authority or
your trust, but they're therefor you to dive into this nitty
gritty.
You cannot just, you know, cutout gluten and hope for the best
(19:42):
, or cut out dairy and hope forthe best.
You need to get a map of theenteric system and you do that
the best way.
The best way is through a stooltest, because that's the
internal metrics of the gut.
The gut is just the wasteproducts that are processed out.
That's all you have to workwith and it can leave you tons
(20:05):
of clues of what's happening onthe inside.
Then the next test is blood,but everything gets filtered by
our gut connection to thecirculatory system.
Everything is broken down andonly nutrition is absorbed and
water is absorbed by the gut.
That's it.
Amino acids, carbohydrates,fatty chain fats that's all that
(20:27):
gets pulled in.
Vitamins, minerals those arethe things that cross that
barrier.
The rest are all screened out.
So, checking stool first, thenmaybe following up with some
type of blood test and then aurine analysis to match the
neurotransmitter depletion orover activity that can really
relate back to mood.
You do this and you can reverseall your mood and behavior
(20:50):
issues through repairing yourgut.
So if you need help, reach outinfo at fulllifetampacom Simple
email saying hey, listen to apodcast, something you can do
for your gut.
So if you need help, reach outinfo at fulllifetampacom simple
email saying hey, listen to apodcast, something you can do
for my gut, and it automaticallyfree consult just to see what's
going on.
Maybe it's not the best fit.
We can start there and we canhelp you anywhere.
You're listening to thispodcast, which is very cool.
Stay well, stay healthy.
(21:12):
Thanks for tuning in and tunein next week, and I'll keep it
entertaining, like we have beenfor two plus years.
Did you know that the gut is often called your second
brain?
Well, it's not just a catchyphrase.
There's real science behind it.
Today we're diving into theamazing gut-brain connection and
what it means for your health.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori.
Thanks for joining us onanother episode of Living a Full
Life.
We've been slowly andunwillingly getting into this
(00:27):
discussion about the gut and thebrain and the microbiome and
health and helping our kids, andit's just naturally spurring up
questions about well, what isthis gut thing?
What is this gut brainconnection?
How does it work?
And I've realized we've neverreally divvied into the science
about how it actually works.
So on today's episode we'll beexploring how the gut
(00:49):
communicates with the brain,what happens when its connection
goes array, and how you cankeep both systems in tip-top
shape for a healthier, happierlife for you and your family and
your children.
The gut and the brain areconnected via a vast network of
nerves, hormones and chemicalmessengers, and they communicate
(01:12):
constantly.
The gut has its own nervoussystem, called the enteric
system, actually the entericnervous system, and this network
is often referred to as thesecond brain.
The mesenteric system is theconnection between the gut and
the brain.
(01:32):
So the nervous system.
The central nervous system isyour actual brain that sits in
your skull and the spinal cord.
Those two together areconsidered your central nervous
system.
The enteric system is theneural plexus around the gut and
the intestine and what thatdoes is it communicates via the
(01:52):
two nervous systems, via themesenteric system, the middle
ground of the enteric and thebrain, and it's connected by the
vagus nerve.
We'll talk about the vagusnerve in detail and how it's the
primary pathway forcommunication between the gut
and the brain.
It's actually responsible forcarrying messages in both
directions.
(02:12):
That's interesting.
We've always thought that thebrain connects everything and
tells the body what to do, butas science keeps moving forward,
we realize that it's a two-waysuperhighway between many
systems, not just the gut or thecardiovascular system.
It's a two-way nervous systemsuperhighway that no fiber optic
(02:33):
cable or anything in the worldhas ever been created to match
its speed, its precision and itsintegrity, and I don't think
we're anywhere close.
But this superhighway goes backand forth and the vagus nerve
plays the relaying signals tothe brain and it plays a vital
role between the two.
A lot of research recently, inthe last 20 years, has shown
(02:54):
that vagal stimulation and howwe can actually affect the vagus
nerve may help people in someways from a whole bunch of
things that we can go into, fromcognition, mood and even
inflammation.
So the vagus nerve's primarypathway is to communicate.
And did you know that 90% ofthe fibers in the vagus nerve
(03:17):
send information from the gut tothe brain, not the other way
around?
That's a major clue that thegut might have more power over
our mental health than we everthought.
It's not an equal highway, it'sa 16 lane highway to the brain
and a two lane highway to thegut from the brain.
Very interesting on how muchinformation is relayed back by
(03:39):
the enteric system.
Gut microbiome influence on thebrain has been exhaustively
expressed over not just theselast few podcasts, but across
science everywhere.
Probiotics have been around for40 years talking about how the
biotics in the gut play a hugerole, from putting it into your
yogurt.
Activa was sued for their falseclaims on how their probiotics
(04:02):
in there, or just yogurtprobiotics, can promote overall
health and we noticed that itdidn't really change anyone's
health, but it wasn't a badthing.
I don't know if they deserve tobe sued, but they were
considered false claims.
The bacteria in yogurt aregreat.
They can help your gut, butthey don't have any health
properties to them.
The trillions of bacteria inthe gut can influence brain
(04:25):
function.
These bacteria releaseneurotransmitters like serotonin
, dopamine and short-chain fattyacids, which play roles in mood
regulation, anxiety anddepression.
Around 95% of the body'sserotonin is produced in the gut
.
Yes, this stuff helps with yourmood, sleep and even digestion
(04:48):
is mostly made in your stomach.
The gut-brain axis is anotherpart of this mesenteric system.
The gut-brain axis concept isthat it's bidirectional
communication between the brainand the gut, affecting
everything from digestion toemotional regulation.
There's even studies across allaspects of health and science
(05:12):
and medicine from enterology,cardiovascular science, brain
science, neurology, neuroscienceshowing the connections between
the enteric and brain healthand how poor gut health, like
dysbiosis or imbalanced gutbacteria, can contribute to
(05:36):
anxiety, depression, evencognitive decline, as we see in
some of the Alzheimer's patientsand research study that's
coming out there.
When your gut is out of balance, you might feel more stressed,
anxious or even foggy.
This is because your gut issending signals to your brain
that affect your mood, emotionsand mental clarity.
(05:56):
How many of you just get angrywhen you're hungry?
That's a primal instinct and weknow it lights up the midbrain
from hunger pangs that make usgo into sympathetic.
So we run out there and huntand get some food right.
That's the primitive brain.
And we hunt and we you knowwe're warriors and we walk all
the way to the pantry or thefridge and we eat the beasts
(06:22):
that we are right.
So that's that's what we do andit's that hunger and we all
have that and I use that examplebecause I think we've all,
we've all been there, probablyrecently me this morning and you
get angry, you got to eat.
It's a natural response.
That is a natural response anda normal response for most
people.
To get anxious, to getdepressed, to get other emotions
(06:48):
, may not be natural for somepeople and that could be lead it
led to a dysbiosis in the gut,triggering other
neurotransmitters that signalother moods in our brain.
There's so much more to lookforward to when science comes
out from this, but all we can donow is really focus on gut
(07:08):
health.
With what we know and manyAmericans suffer from dysbiosis
there's also physical healthimplications that can happen
with this, like a dysfunctionalgut-brain connection could
contribute to chronic pain,inflammation, irritable bowel
syndrome and even autoimmunedisorders.
So we get physical symptoms andpathologies and diseases from
(07:31):
an imbalanced mesenteric system.
Stress plays a huge role inthis.
Not only can that cause stress,but stress can also have its
highway effect back to the gut.
It can really affect the gutbrain access.
Chronic stress can worsen guthealth and vice versa, chronic
gut health can increase stress.
(07:52):
So let's dive into how tomaintain a healthy gut, and if
you listen to the last fewpodcasts, we have some great
tips on there.
But now that we got into thescience of the enteric system,
the mesenteric system and thegut brain access, now we can
understand oh, hang on, there'sa neural complexity in here and
(08:12):
unless you're an electricalengineer, you may not be able to
visualize how this works.
If you like, electricity,frequency and static energy, and
you understand those principles.
That's how our nervous systemworks.
It works on this high pitch andlow pitch, frequency and
electrical conductance, theiractual energy between every
(08:35):
message, and it's controlledhomeostatically through tone.
And I love to teach in ouroffice the nervous system for
all of its communication.
Even the mesenteric system, theenteric system, are like guitar
.
If you play the guitar or anystring instruments, I love this
analogy of the guitar.
String has to be tuned to acertain tensile strength.
(08:58):
Once it's there, you can thendo the A key, the D key, the E
key.
You can play those tones, thosekeys, and if they're not, if
they're too loose or too tight,you'll decrease the pitch or
increase the pitch and be out oftune.
And that's our battle throughour whole lives is to maintain
(09:19):
homeostasis within our centraland peripheral nervous systems.
How do we do that?
We start with a gut-friendlydiet.
You are what you eat.
Let food be thy medicine.
Everything from thousands ofyears ago that have been written
by Hippocrates, socrates, thephilosophers, galileo we have
(09:43):
them written over and over againthrough the history books.
And what we want to do is eatmore fiber-rich foods, fermented
foods especially likesauerkraut, and add probiotics
can help keep your gutmicrobiome diverse and healthy.
That means better communicationwith your brain.
(10:04):
The more diverse your gut, thebetter the communication.
It's the more communication.
For those of you that havemarried and have been married
for years, communication is key.
The less communication you have, the more rocky, the more
indifferent the relationship canbe.
The more communication you have, the more smooth.
I'm not saying it's perfect,I'm saying the more smooth a
(10:25):
relationship can be.
And that's the same thing withthe relationship between the gut
and the brain, the morecommunication they can have.
The more diverse of amicrobiome you can have, the
more communication in many moredifferent languages can happen
between the brain.
The more languages that thebrain understands and the more
languages that the gut can speak, the better versed we are with
(10:48):
communication.
We'll understand and notmisinterpret any signals
neurotransmitters that go to thebrain to dysregulate our mood
and our behavior.
Stress management is the next onthe list and these are in order
from number one that we have todo is the diet.
You can't do anything elsewithout a proper diet If you're
just eating malnutritious foodsthat have nothing to them.
(11:10):
The thing about processed bread, processed meats, processed
carbohydrates, boxed foods cansis it's lost its vital energy.
It's lost its bacteria.
It has to be sanitized to beshelf stable.
There is nothing in it.
So when we eat this stuff it'svoid of anything new to the gut,
which is probably number one.
(11:31):
Two, it feeds a lot of the badguys in our gut too.
They love those simple carbsand those starchy things that
have low nutrition.
They love eating those up.
The good bacteria love, youknow, protein, amino acids,
fatty chains.
They love eating that stuff up.
So if we're not giving themthose, we're not giving our body
that stuff, we get intodysbiosis very quickly.
So that's the diet the mostimportant thing.
(11:53):
Number two is your stressmanagement.
You know we got to discuss somestrategies on this, like
meditation, mindfulness,exercise, quality sleep.
It's so important for guthealth.
Stress is like a villain inthis story.
It disrupts gut function andcreates a negative feedback loop
.
Reducing stress throughactivities like yoga, breathing
(12:14):
exercises or even taking a walkcan immediately benefit for your
gut and your mood.
So we got to manage stress,which is a sneaky way of me
getting in some movement andrelaxation.
Into here.
Number four, and there's onlyfive that we're going to go
through.
Number four into here.
Number four, and there's onlyfive that we're going to go
through.
Number four probiotics andprebiotics.
We've got to be rotatingthrough this through diet and
(12:38):
supplements.
There's a difference betweenprobiotics, which are live
bacteria, and prebiotics, whichare food for bacteria.
I guess out of all the podcastsI've done, I've never really
explained those two, and thatwas a great question that came
up a couple weeks ago by apatient via email saying, hey,
what's the difference betweenprebiotic and probiotic?
And I answered it very quicklyon email.
(12:59):
I don't ever think I ever saidthis on the podcast.
The prebiotics is the food forthe biome bacteria in your gut.
It's important.
We want to feed them the goodstuff so that the good bacteria
proliferate and stay there andthe bad bacteria stay at a low
volume and they work together.
So taking a prebiotic is great.
(13:22):
Usually, prebiotics come fromthe food that you eat.
So if you have a well-balanced,high-fiber diet, that's your
prebiotics.
The probiotics are live gutbacteria that you have to
introduce.
Introduce and it's only goingto come through fermented foods.
It's the only way.
Unless you like eating rottenapples and drinking spoiled milk
, you're not going to get much.
I highly recommend not doingthat.
(13:43):
You're not going to get it, soyou're going to have to put in
probiotics.
And number five is exercise.
The connection between physicalactivity and gut health is
overwhelming.
Studies are showing thatexercise can improve gut
microbiome diversity in itself,the constant breaking down.
And when you exercise you needto eat.
(14:03):
And when you exercise you needto eat nutritious food.
And when you exercise you needto eat more protein.
It's just natural what you'regoing to crave when you exercise
regularly.
And exercise is 15 to 20minutes, five days a week.
That's the start of exercise.
If you don't do that, you don'texercise.
Anything more than that is moreexercise, which is not a bad
thing.
It's a good thing.
(14:24):
So here's some gut brain triviafor you.
Did you know that about 70% ofyour immune system is located in
your gut?
We already said 90% of thecommunications from the gut to
the brain, 70% of your entireimmune system, is regulated and
controlled by your gut.
That's why keeping your guthealthy isn't just good for your
(14:46):
brain, it's good for yourimmune system.
The immune system is a wholedifferent podcast.
It's not just your nervoussystem.
Your immune system is not anorgan, it's not just one thing.
It communicates between theentire mesenteric system, which
is the largest neural pathway inthe human body.
When you combine the brain andthe enteric system, you now have
(15:07):
the largest communication byfar in the human body, and the
immune system sits within thatand other systems in the body as
well, to control everything,even the circulatory system.
So sleep how does your gutaffect sleep?
Well, if it controlsneurotransmitter disruption, it
(15:28):
can control sleep, likemelatonin.
So we want to mention the rolethat gut plays in regulating
sleep patterns due to itsinfluence on neurotransmitters
just like melatonin, serotonin,dopamine, all these things.
Serotonin plays a big role insleep.
There you go.
Those are the five things thatwe really need to work on to
(15:48):
have a healthy gut-brainconnection a gut-friendly diet,
stress management pro, and agut-friendly diet, stress
management pro.
And prebiotics, exercise andsleep.
All right, there you goJam-packed one.
I wanted to just give a podcastthat was packed, entertaining,
science-filled, neurologicallyfilled.
(16:10):
One question we get a lot iscan know, can taking probiotic
really improve my mood?
The answer is yes.
There's lots of researchshowing this.
There's growing research thatsuggests probiotics can help
improve symptoms from anxietyand depression for some people.
It's never that simple foreveryone, but for some people,
just adding that into their diethas made an overwhelming change
(16:33):
.
So what I encourage everyonethat's listening today to do is
a couple things Add probiotic orfermented foods to your diet.
Take a 10-minute walk aftermeals or in the evening.
Many cultures around the worlddo this and for us, we're in a
(16:54):
multicultural country and if youjust look outside your window
in the evenings, no matter whatneighborhood you're in, no
matter what community you livein in North America, you'll see
certain types and certaincultures going for their seven
o'clock PM walk UsuallyEuropeans, the Asian culture,
indians, africans they do this.
It's just part of their thing.
It's a post digestive thingthat they do and they actually
(17:15):
have that concept of stressmanagement post digestion and
walking after a meal.
Americans, I don't think that'sin their routine.
You shouldn't make it part ofyour routine.
They're all Americans too.
You know what I mean.
But that's where we go, thereand then try mindfulness or deep
breathing and manage stresslevels.
There you go.
(17:36):
How was that for a podcast?
The gut-brain connection alittle bit more delved into.
If you need any help with this,functional medicine is your way
to go when it comes to gut-brain.
Everyone else will waste yourtime.
No shade thrown on thesepractitioners medical nurse
(17:56):
practitioners, holisticnutritionists, nutritionists,
dieticians they're following apragmatic meal planning way of
nutrition.
Functional medicine someonewell-versed in functional
medicine, especially internalfunctional, internist and
(18:17):
internal.
Someone who's got their extradegree in this extra time.
Whether they went to medicalschool osteopathic, chiropractic
or not, not naturopathy theyshould have a designation
afterwards for internal medicineor internal functional medicine
.
That's the people you want tolook for and they will be loud
and they will be proud becausethey want to help people and you
(18:38):
luckily have access to thiswith Dr Heifer at Full Life
Chiropractic, and all this stuffcan be done virtually, because
it's gut, it's exercise, it'ssupplementation, it can all be
delivered to your home and youhave to get out and sleep and
walk and do all those simplethings.
So it's easily done.
But there's testing that can bedone, like stool testing, gut
testing and blood testing, andyou may not need all of them
(18:59):
that show everything that'sgoing on.
I just recently did a urineanalysis, taking samples through
five points of the day, in themiddle of the night morning, two
hours obviously, to showneurotransmitters Very, very
informative, way above my head.
You need someone like thatthat's trained in that to really
(19:20):
help you move forward.
So if you've been frustratedwith healthcare, we're all
frustrated with healthcare, butthere are people out there that
they don't have to write 20books to grab your authority or
your trust, but they're therefor you to dive into this nitty
gritty.
You cannot just, you know, cutout gluten and hope for the best
(19:42):
, or cut out dairy and hope forthe best.
You need to get a map of theenteric system and you do that
the best way.
The best way is through a stooltest, because that's the
internal metrics of the gut.
The gut is just the wasteproducts that are processed out.
That's all you have to workwith and it can leave you tons
(20:05):
of clues of what's happening onthe inside.
Then the next test is blood,but everything gets filtered by
our gut connection to thecirculatory system.
Everything is broken down andonly nutrition is absorbed and
water is absorbed by the gut.
That's it.
Amino acids, carbohydrates,fatty chain fats that's all that
(20:27):
gets pulled in.
Vitamins, minerals those arethe things that cross that
barrier.
The rest are all screened out.
So, checking stool first, thenmaybe following up with some
type of blood test and then aurine analysis to match the
neurotransmitter depletion orover activity that can really
relate back to mood.
You do this and you can reverseall your mood and behavior
(20:50):
issues through repairing yourgut.
So if you need help, reach outinfo at fulllifetampacom Simple
email saying hey, listen to apodcast, something you can do
for your gut.
So if you need help, reach outinfo at fulllifetampacom simple
email saying hey, listen to apodcast, something you can do
for my gut, and it automaticallyfree consult just to see what's
going on.
Maybe it's not the best fit.
We can start there and we canhelp you anywhere.
You're listening to thispodcast, which is very cool.
Stay well, stay healthy.
(21:12):
Thanks for tuning in and tunein next week, and I'll keep it
entertaining, like we have beenfor two plus years.
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