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At this point, if you haven't personally experienced the joy of mild everyday stresses, you likely have a friend or loved one who deals with some occasional stress. Clearly, many of us have mental health on the mind.
One of the most interesting, reassuring and exciting developments in mental health is that potty talk has lost its stigma with the discovery that our gut influences how we feel. (No, we’re not talking about digestive stress after eating a spicy curry.) Scientists are now referring to our gastrointestinal tract as our “second brain”. While high-level reasoning and detailed thought processes are still handled by the brain, many of our ideas and feelings are dictated by the 30-foot organ running from the end of our esophagus to the anus.
This lengthy tract is where a network of 100 million neurons carries information from the gut to our brain. Meaning, our enteric nervous system and gut microbiome (both science-y names for our GI tract) inform what goes on in our head. This has led scientists to reason that the source of stress, in some cases, could be the war-torn lining of a gut that’s battled, among other things, everyday toxins in our environment, or low-quality, antagonistic foods (and not just the occasional spicy Indian dish).
Thankfully researchers have found many alternative and complementary ways to calm our mind.