The Gut-Brain-Axis (GBA)

The GBA is the communication system between your digestive system and nervous system, which are connected via your vagus nerve. The longest nerve in the body, the vagus (which means wandering nerve) forks into two, one to the left and one to the right side of the body. Among other things, the vagus provides two-way communication between the brain and the gut.

The gut interacts with and influences so many activities in our body and brain that – already 20 years ago – we began calling it “the second brain”. The research I did at NYU and Langone, has unequivocally showed that our gut and its environment play an important role in how we feel, psychologically. When the gut is not functioning well, communication between the gut and the brain in our head suffers. Our physical and emotional health suffer as a result.

Rather than the simple understanding of the gut that you and I grew up with as a place where food is digested, I now recognize it to be a microbiome, a vast, interacting community of living microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses). These microbes outnumber our human cells, ten to one, and the majority of them live in the gut.

When there is an imbalance in the gut microbiome, other organs are affected, including our brain and our emotions. Imbalance in the gut could play a key role in many symptoms such as pain levels, stress levels, and sensory processing that can manifest as chronic fatigue, brain fog, low and high blood pressure, insomnia, hormonal imbalance, mental health symptoms and many more.  

What Causes Gut Imbalance

Many variables affect gut imbalance. The key ones are:

1) Stress. The more we are exposed to stress the greater its impact on our gut.

2) Diet. High-sugar, high-fat, processed foods impact gut inhabitants differently, and overgrowth of some results.

3) Environment toxinsaccumulate and burden the gut.

4) Infections(from viruses, bacteria) and overgrowth of fungi, mold, and pathogens also lead to overgrowth.

In short:

What we eat affects how we feel.

Stress affects the gut which in turn affects how we feel.

What is happening in the gut affects our response to stress.

The mechanisms for these effects are complex and much remains to be learned. A study in 2019 suggested that stress causes changes in the activity of the gut. These changes trigger immune responses from the body that can include an inflammation “attack” of the body against itself. Whatever the mechanism, it is well-established that gut dysbiosis contributes to inflammation. In other words, an overgrowth of bad bacteria or pathogens in the gut triggers inflammation in the body.

What is inflammation?

Inflammation is a defense mechanism triggered in the body when it recognizes an attack and gathers special resources in response. It’s a requirement for survival. For example, the red soreness that appears around an infected wound is an inflammatory response essential to isolating invaders and ensuring their destruction before they spread. The body responds with inflammation to a wide variety of threats, including not only infections, but also irritants, stress and physical trauma.   

When we are exposed to any of these triggers, the body produces small protein cells called cytokines. These small cells facilitate the response of the body to threat. Their presence can be measured and used to assess inflammation levels in the body.

There is now growing evidence on many fronts that inflammation affects how we feel. This influence is exerted through many systems, including the immune system, metabolism, sleep, stress responses, cognitive thinking, memory, expression, impulse control, mood, clarity, and more. Much remains to be learned about the mechanisms and effects of inflammation, but the existence of a linkage between inflammation and these many systems, each a key element of emotional functioning, is now indisputable. 

This means that as a professional committed to working competently with all my patients, I need to pay close attention to any inflammation you may have.

There’s a lot of research on inflammation now underway. Here are a few areas of research that I find particularly interesting for people with mental health symptoms:

Depression, Bipolar, Anxiety and Inflammation

More and more studies suggest that depression and/or bipolar disorder are accompanied by immune system dysregulation and inflammation, andhigh levelsofcytokines. Inflammationhas been found totrigger depression, almost like an allergic reaction. 

Stress,PTSDand Inflammation

Exposure tochildhood adversityhas been linked to the development of inflammatory conditions later in life. Stress at a young age is associated with gut inflammation that can lead to problematic mental and physical conditions.

The mechanism seems to be that stress hormones affect the organisms living in the gut and their balance with each other. Gut imbalance can lead to damage in the lining of the gut (known as “leaky gut”). As a result, toxins and bacteria “leak" through the intestines and enter the bloodstream. This which triggers a reaction of the immune system, inflammation.

Eventually inflammation spreads to other organs including the brain and contributes to increased vulnerability to the emergence of a variety of symptoms that we refer to as: sensory processing disorder, ASD, ADHD, ODD, BPD, Bi-Polar, depression, anxiety, auto-immune conditions (arthritis, irritable bowel disease, Lupus, MS etc.) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, PTSD, CPTSD and so forth

Adversechildhoodexperiences also affect the microbiome. Another study I conducted in 2015 clearly showed that children with a history of earlycaregivingdisruptions had distinctly different gut microbiomes from those raised with biological caregivers from birth. Brain scans of all the children also showed that brain activity patterns were correlated with certain bacteria. For example, the children raised byparentshad increased gut microbiome diversity, which is linked to the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain known to help regulate emotions.

In my view, this research raises the question of egg or chicken. That is, does stress cause inflammation or does inflammation cause stress responses? It’s likely to be both. The more we are exposed to stress, the more likely that inflammation will be triggered. The more we have inflammation in our body, the more easily we are overwhelmed by stress.

Causes of Inflammation

There are many variables that can trigger inflammation and initiate mental and physical symptoms:

▪    Short and long term exposure to stress.

▪    High sugar, high processed starch/carb diet.

▪    Processed fats (processed oils, fried food).

▪    Food sensitivities/allergies.

▪    Viral/bacterial infections, pathogens etc.

▪    Autoimmune conditions.

▪    Environmental toxins.

▪    Malnutrition (diet low in micro and macro nutrients).

In my practice I see trauma survivors who suffering from chronic mental health symptoms improve, a few only modestly but many significantly, when we began addressing inflammation and root causes of inflammation. Study of much literature, together with own experiences as a trauma survivor and neuropsychologist, have brought me to the conclusion that an all-wellness approach ought to be mainstreamed to everyone suffering from mental health symptoms. That is why, in large part, my 90 Day Total Transformation Program has been so successful.

Remember that YOU are the only authority on your body. If someone or something like amedicationor food makes you feel bad or worse, and your medical professional does not support you, find one who does.