Brain, Heart and Gut - Are they all connected?

You’ve probably experienced nervous twitters or “butterflies” in your stomach before an interview or a presentation? Or, how about feeling your mood take a dive after eating too much of a delicious, but all too greasy a meal? The message here being, what we eat, and what we think about, affects our mental and emotional state which impacts our general physical health.

Now to bring this point home, here’s the more scientific explanation that is easily found in your daily research:

We have millions of nerve cells lining our digestive system, often referred to as our “second brain”. Because we, as human beings are, a highly effective and efficient, multi-system communication body, these cells are constantly sending signals to your central nervous system.

To be more precise, the “gut microbiome, the trillions of bacteria living in your gut, has a role in producing the well-known, neurotransmitters like serotonin, which we now know, impacts mood and emotions. Now if there is an imbalance in our gut bacteria, we can begin to experience mood imbalances like depression as well as an increase in our anxiety. I believe that many of us instinctively know this, when we pay attention to ourselves.

We understand that to ensure a healthy heart we need a good supply of oxygen-rich blood. If not, our cognition and memory will begin to suffer. If we continue to experience restrictions in our blood flow of oxygen, perhaps due to lack of exercise, poor diet, anemia, or sleep apnea, we’ll likely develop problems like foggy thinking, memory loss, and even early signs of dementia.

Another impediment to our heart health is an inordinate and sustained increase in our stress levels. When this happens, increased blood pressure and even inflammation will find their way to decrease heart and brain functioning.

We may not realize this information as clearly as the other 2 examples, but the gut microbiome, also influences our heart’s health by regulating and cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Plaque can build up the arteries when we don’t have good gut health and it can put extra strain on the heart.

We are holistic beings and by truly understanding the interconnectedness of our brain, heart, and gut health, we can take a more complete approach to our well-being. These three vital organs all work together in an intelligent interrelated way, so taking are of one, is really taking care of all.