In many situations, people respond to only a gut feeling, but how reliable is our physical center?
Who does not, the proverbial butterflies in my stomach, on the one hand the incredible thrill of anticipation, but on the other heralds from nervousness. The first date, an interview, stage fright before a grand entrance. And on the other hand, the negative situations, physical or emotional stress and worry, of course, can be expressed by an oppressive sensation or stomach cramps. Not infrequently, even when problems arise stomach ulcers are vented through the stomach.
New field of research for neurologists?
We have already guessed it long, but now is the belly moved with his twisted intestinal tract and stomach into the center of science. The talk is of the second brain. In recent years, neurologists deal with the nervous system in the intestinal tract. Applies soon no longer the hypothalamus but the stomach as the seat of emotions? Probably not says neurologist Michael Gershon: „The gut is something contemptible, reptilian, and he has absolutely nothing in common with the brain resulting from the clever idea,“ Gershon wrote in his 2001’s representation in Germany, „The wise heart“. But in the 19th Century was considered the abdominal brain as the seat of emotions, while the cerebrum was responsible for conscious decisions, this knowledge only came back into oblivion.
We now know the science that exists in the gut a brain that entereale nervous system. Thus, the intestine is the only organ in our body with a nervous system and that is not exactly small. Michael Gershon notes that „we have in our intestines more nerve cells than in the spine and the entire peripheral nervous system.“ Of course, the gut is associated with our brain, but there are only connecting one-to two thousand nerve fibers to the brain with the 100 million nerve cells in the small intestine.
Our stomach often reacts in front of our brain and sends out signals. Not for nothing thematize many proverbs relating to the abdomen or stomach real human feelings.
- Must throw up on someone
- Something turns a stomach or is a hard to digest
- Something must first digest
- A sinking feeling in my stomach
- decide from the gut
The belly seems more or less successfully to communicate with us, but it is worth listening too? Are belly decisions always make the right decisions? Of course, decisions from the gut often spontaneous and emotional and very important issues, decisions should rather be based on rational considerations, but the gut feeling it should not be ignored. He is our early warning system that can be as in the parallel parking in the car safely ignored even times when we can be sure to assess a situation properly, but for our health’s sake should be paid to a functional connection between the first and second brain. There are only a few thousand nerve fibers that connect the brain with our belly, but they are of crucial importance.