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The “second brain” in your gut can control what happens in your brain

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WRITTEN BY

Akshat Rathi

gut-brain

 

The brain’s powers are a little overrated. To keep your body going, you don’t need a functioning brain, but you do need something to provide energy. Enter the gut.

We may not give it much thought—because, literally, it happens without conscious thought—but the process of extracting energy from food is an intricate one. It involves hundreds of millions of neurons that aren’t in your brain. Those neurons are found in the outer layers of your gut, and the enteric nervous system they form is so powerful that it can work without any direct input from the brain.
The actions this nervous system performs include ensuring food passes at regulated speed, getting the right juices secreted to make digestion easier, and managing the mucus of the intestinal lining. These are crucial functions. And in the past decade, we have learned just how much of an impact the gut can have on the rest of the body and the mind.

Command and control

For instance, the processes the enteric nervous system performs also gives it some control over the trillions of microbes that sit in your gut. Many of them are essential for our health, because they help us extract nutrients that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to, and some even fend off infections.

One way enteric neurons control these microbes is by changing the thickness of the mucus lining. Justin and Erica Sonnenburg, researchers at Stanford University and authors of The Good Gut, say this process is similar to how “creatures adapted to a moist rain forest would struggle in the desert.” Depending on what kinds of microbes are best suited for a job, the mucus lining can determine their population in the gut.

And there’s more. It had been suspected that what happens in the gut could have an impact on the brain. Now we have found too many correlations to ignore the gut-to-brain connection.

A 2011 study split a group of mice based on their personality: timid vs adventurous. Then the researchers took another set of mice with microbe-free guts. In half, they installed the microbiome of timid mice, and in the other half they placed the microbiome of adventurous mice. Lo and beholdthose germ-free mice took on the personality traits of the microbiome-owner.
In a 2013 study, using another mice model, researchers at the California Institute of Technology found that mice with autistic features—such as stress, anti-social nature, and troubling gastrointestinal symptoms—had much lower levels of Bacteroides fragilis than normal mice did. Worse still, when injected a chemical (4-ethylphenylsulphate) found in the guts of autistic mice in to normal mice, they developed autistic symptoms too.
In a 2014 study, researchers at University College Cork found that mice born via C-sections were found to have a greater risk of suffering from depression than mice born vaginally. Turns out, the C-section mice had far less diverse species of microbes in their gut, most likely because they couldn’t pick up the beneficial microbes found in their mother’s vagina.
Although mice are easier to manipulate, such connections are not limited to mice alone. In a 2013 study, researchers at Arizona State University found that humans with behavioral conditions, such as autism, had significant differences in their gut microbiome as compared to more normal humans.

Until now, however, these gut-brain connections have been mere correlations. With some help from tapeworms, a new study changes that.

Tapeworms to the rescue

One of the connecting factors between the brain and the gut has been the immune system. Neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis, are linked to changes in the immune system, and auto-immune diseases of the gut, such as Crohn’s disease, are linked to mental illnesses.

Now a new study published in published in Brain, Behavior and Immunity has made use of this immune-system connection to show how the gut can have an impact on the brain. To trigger this connection, Staci Bilbo, a neuroscientist at Duke University, and her colleagues used tapeworms and showed how these nasty creatures can stop memory loss.

She split a group of 30 rats in two: those infected with the Hymenolepis diminuta worm and those without. Then, in both groups, she induced a second infection aimed at increasing the production of a brain signaling chemical called IL-1β. The chemical is usually beneficial, but in excess it can cause damage and has been associated with brain disease.

To test their memories, the rats were put in a room and were allowed to become familiar with it. Then Bilbo gave them a shock so that they would connect the room with bad memories. The next day she re-introduced both wormed and un-wormed rats in the room.
She found that mice with tapeworms were twice as likely to recoil from the room as rats that did not have worms. So the tapeworm infection seems to have protected the mice from memory loss, as compared to infection-free mice.

Good gut, good brain

The reason was that mice with tapeworm infection had already had an immune response, which kept the levels of IL-1β low when a second infection came along. Lower levels of IL-1β in the brain ensured the formation and retention of memories, more than in rats without the worms. Those who hadn’t had the infection produced far greater levels of IL-1β.

This kind of effect is called “biome depletion,” where a lack of exposure to infections causes immune systems to overreact to infections later in life. Thus exposure to some microbes can help avoid such a response, and, in the case of the rats, help prevent memory loss.
To be sure, tapeworm infections can be nasty, and nobody is recommending that you ingest some to protect against memory loss. The circuitous route taken was to come to a definitive conclusion that the changes in the gut can trigger changes in the brain.
The evidence from Bilbo’s study is among the first to draw a causal link. And more is sure to come. In 2014, the US National Institutes for Mental Health spent about $1 million on research looking at the microbiome-brain connection.
In comparison to the many billions of neurons in the brain, the gut’s hundreds of millions might not seem like much. And, yet, it’s quite clear “gut feelings” are no longer just a metaphor.
The original article – http://qz.com/474523/is-your-gut-really-the-second-brain/

Cleveland Clinic 2014 Medical Innovations – No. 6 Innovation: Fecal Transplant Fights Disease

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Bringing balance back to your gut

Cleveland Clinic asked more than 100 of its top experts about the innovations set to reshape healthcare in the coming year. These are their answers — the Top 10 Innovations for 2014.

The microbiota, or mix of microbes, in your intestines exists in a delicate state of balance. Sometimes, antibiotics used for treatment can undo that balance by killing both aggressive and friendly bacteria.

When this happens, hardy C.diff (short for Clostridium difficile) microbes live on — often with disastrous results when they spread infection from person to person. Many gastroenterologists are fighting this problem with a novel approach called fecal microbiota transplantation, a.k.a. human stool transplants.

 

Restoring balance

In this therapy, doctors use a colonoscopy or enema to transfer a liquid suspension made from a healthy person’s fecal matter into a sick person’s colon. The goal is to restore bacterial balance and fight infections and diseases.

Fecal microbiota transplantation could become a primary therapy not only for C.diff infection, but also for inflammatory bowel disease.

C.diff poses such high risks because of how it spreads, particularly in hospitals. It can be transmitted to hands, food, utensils, sheets, countertops and curtains as spores. When passed to another person, these spores lead to intestinal inflammation, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, C. diffinfections have increased to 500,000 cases each year in the United States. That includes 15,000 deaths annually.

Fecal transplantation might help bring those numbers down.

Clinical study results have been positive. Some people who have had multiple C. diff infections have realized benefits from the therapy hours later, have been cured of their symptoms within 24 hours, and have had no further infections.

As research continues, experts expect that fecal microbiota transplantation could become a primary therapy not only for C.diff infection, but also for inflammatory bowel disease. It even holds promise for treating conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson’s disease.

 

See original article…

Microflora of the gastrointestinal tract: a review.

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Methods Mol Biol. 2004;268:491-502.

Microflora of the gastrointestinal tract: a review.

Hao WL1, Lee YK.

Author information

Abstract

The mucosal surface of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract is about 200-300 m2 and is colonized by 1013-14 bacteria of 400 different species and subspecies. Savage has defined and categorized the gastrointestinal microflora into two types, autochthonous flora (indigenous flora) and allochthonous flora (transient flora). Autochthonous microorganisms colonize particular habitats, i.e., physical spaces in the GI tract, whereas allochthonous microorganisms cannot colonize particular habitats except under abnormal conditions. Most pathogens are allochthonous microorganisms; nevertheless, some pathogens can be autochthonous to the ecosystem and normally live in harmony with the host, except when the system is disturbed. The prevalence of bacteria in different parts of the GI tract appears to be dependent on several factors, such as pH, peristalsis, redox potential, bacterial adhesion, bacterial cooperation, mucin secretion, nutrient availability, diet, and bacterial antagonism. Because of the low pH of the stomach and the relatively swift peristalsis through the stomach and the small bowel, the stomach and the upper two-thirds of the small intestine (duodenum and jejunum) contain only low numbers of microorganisms, which range from 103 to 104 bacteria/mL of the gastric or intestinal contents, mainly acid-tolerant lactobacilli and streptococci. In the distal small intestine (ileum), the microflora begin to resemble those of the colon, with around 107-108 bacteria/mL of the intestinal contents. With decreased peristalsis, acidity, and lower oxidation-reduction potentials, the ileum maintains a more diverse microflora and a higher bacterial population. Probably because of slow intestinal motility and very low oxidation-reduction potentials, the colon is the primary site of microbial colonization in humans. The colon harbors tremendous numbers and species of bacteria. However, 99.9% of colonic microflora are obligate anaerobes.

PMID:

 

15156063

 

[PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

How Microbes Keep Us Healthy [Infographic]

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The gut houses trillions of microbes. They eat what you eat. Many specialize in fermenting the soluble fiber in legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables. Certain microbial species are adept at colonizing the mucous layer of the gut. Mucus contains antimicrobial substances that keep the microbiota at a slight distance. But it also contains sugars such as those found in breast milk. Some microbes, often the same ones that specialize in fermenting fiber, can use these sugars as sustenance when other food is not available. The by-products of fiber fermentation nourish cells lining the colon. Some by-products pass into the circulation and may calibrate our immune system in a way that prevents inflammatory disorders such as asthma and Crohn’s disease.

healthy2

 

Microbes R My Friends

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Little did I know that I would be friends with a bunch of microbes! All my life I have been taught to “Wash your hands!” “you don’t want to have those nasty germs all over you!” etc., etc.  Little did we know that most of those nasty germs were actually friends.

The more as a society that we have cleaned up, we have become sicker and not better.  New autoimmune diseases are discovered every week and physicians are at a loss to fix it.  All we are told is that we should take drugs to “turn off” our immune response.  REALLY!?  This is how crazy it has gotten.

Many of my friends, family members and acquaintances now suffer from Crohn’s or IBS, or ADHD, etc. and their only hope is a lifelong drug addiction.  Not for me.  Understanding our microbiome holds such great hope that it has inspired me to start this website.  I hope that it can be a help to others looking for clues and answers that they are not getting through their physicians.

Let me know your story.  Let me know what you have found out and post it here.  I will promise you that we will share it and research it.