The colon has been nicknamed the “second brain.” And the fact is that you can detach the colon from any communication with the brain and it will still know how to perform its functions.

In that condition you can even fill it filled with fiber and it will still “know” how to push the fiber out. It is also referred to as the by medical practitioners also refer to the colon as the “Emotional Organ.”

Dr. Jill Ammon-Wexler notes that, “You actually have as many brain cells in your gut… as you do in your skull!”

Many of our physical sensations that something isn’t right or that some situation might be dangerous might just come from the mind in your gut—or your second brain kicking in.

It’s an amazing and little realized fact that humans actually possess two brains, one located in our gut.

And truth be told, your gut provides the home to half your nerve cells. And here’s an even more amazing revelation. Your second “gut brain” fires up neurons and neurotransmitters just like your brain does!

Your “gut brain” can also learn, remember, and create emotions. So the expression “gut-hunch” isn’t just a “saying.” We really do have a thinking and intuitive brain in our gut. Our second brain even gives us another angle from which to understand Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

It doesn’t take brain science (pun intended)  to figure out that the second brain might be the cause of IBS. Ponder that Antidepressants (like SSRIs) have been known to immediately relieve the symptoms in IBS patients even when the doses fall too low to treat depression.

So one good question that we might ask is whether antidepressants actually address the cause of depression in the second brain.

Glenn