Gut Brain Axis

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Pages: 4

Throughout the years there has been a controversial question on whether or not there is a connection between the gut-brain axis. The gut-brain axis is, a bidirectional neurohumoral communication system, that acts on our gastrointestinal and immune system, in which it’s functions help shape the guts microbial and help maintain homeostasis. It has been deliberately revealed that gut microbes influence the brain through hormones, immune molecules and many other specialized metabolites that’s being produced by a bacterial population living in our intestine called the gut microbiota; tens of trillions of microorganisms. Medical communities should devote further study to investigate if there is a connection between the gut and brain because both …show more content…
Understanding the importance of our digestive system Emeran Mayer, professor of medicine and director of the UCLA Oppenheimer center for neurobiology of stress and resilience, has implied that probiotics injusted in food alters bacteria in the gut through specific diets and could possibly help treat stress-related and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, anxiety and depression by triggering with our digestive and nervous system (qtd. Gordon 1-2). Along with Dr.Mayer, Yvette Taché, PhD professor of medicine, co-director of UCLA Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience and associate director of the CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Center at UCLA, agrees that our gut and brain affects our digestive system, but then she goes to add that the connection between the two also affects our nervous system by (qtd. Gordon 4). Based on the information provided by Mayer and Taché, it’s safe to say “you are what you eat” therefore we should be mindful of what we are putting into our body in order to prevent …show more content…
“Gut microbes make vitamins, break dietary fibers into digestible short-chain fatty acids and govern normal functions in the immune system (Schmidt 3).” Sarkis Mazmanian, Microbiologist at the California Institute of Technology declares that microbes contributes to our immune system behavior and other neurodevelopmental disorders. To these discoveries Mazmanian, microbiologist Premsyl Bercik and gastroenterologist Stephen Collins found that Bacteroides fragilis can treat inflammatory bowel disease by protecting, and fighting off infections in colitis. Furthermore, Mazmanian revealed that the gut microbiome impacts multiple sclerosis, constipation and other autoimmune diseases (qtd. Gordon 2-3). Mazmanian also confessed that he saw a “future in drugs for any disease derived in small molecules found inside microbes along with behavioral change (qtd. Smith 8).” Although Paul Patterson, a neuroscientist and developmental biologist at California Institute of Technology, acknowledges that he agrees with Mazmanian, Bercik and Collins, he also indicates that the connection between the gut and the brain starts with the nervous system. Patterson mentions the vagus nerve to indicate how major organs linked to the brain rely on this nerve to monitor and