The gut converses with the brain like no other organ. If you’ve ever felt queasy as you walked into an uncomfortable situation or based a life decision on a “gut feeling,” then you know that sometimes our bodies react faster and often wiser than our minds. Emeran A. Mayer, MD, Ph.D. is a gastroenterologist, neuroscientist and Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Physiology and Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is the Executive Director of the Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience at UCLA. He is the Executive Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience at UCLA, and co-director of the CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Center. As Dr. Mayer explains, the connection between the mind and the gut is bidirectional: the gut talks to the brain and the brain talks to the gut every minute of our lives. One of the most intriguing aspects of this dialogue is the fact that the microbes living in our gut play a crucial role in it. When this communication channel is out of whack—due to diet, lifestyle, stress, excessive antibiotic use or illness—we experience mental and physical health issues including food sensitivities and allergies, digestive disorders, obesity, depression, panic disorders, anxiety, and fatigue.
