The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health

by Emeran Mayer

evidence for some twenty-five different bitter taste receptors has been found in the human gut. While

The multitude of phytochemicals derived from a diet rich in diverse plants, combined with the array of perfectly matching sensory mechanisms in our gut, synchronizes our internal ecosystem (our gut microbiome) with the world around us.

To date, a large number of different sensory neurons have been identified that are each specialized for a specific aspect of gut sensations and respond to a particular molecule released by the gut’s endocrine cells.

Yet a recent study of close to 54,000 randomly selected Americans showed that children or teenagers who experience adverse events have a higher likelihood of suffering from poor health, a heart attack, stroke, asthma, and diabetes as adults.

better-nurtured rats had lower levels of corticosterone, the rat stress

our brains become rewired in response to adverse experiences early in life—and that rewiring can persist throughout our lifetime.

investigators observed a decrease in anxiety-like behavior when they fed the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus to healthy adult mice. In another study, a different probiotic species, Lactobacillus longum, was found to decrease anxiety-like behaviors markedly in mice with colitis,

autism-like behaviors disappear by treating the affected mice with human intestinal bacteria called Bacteroides fragilis.

the insular cortex, discussed in more detail in the next chapter, can and does retrieve this somatic marker information.

So the better you are at tracking your own heartbeats, the better you are at experiencing the full gamut of human emotions and gut feelings.

Food emulsifiers also can disrupt the tight seal formed by the intact intestinal lining, enabling gut bacteria to cross and gain access to nearby immune cells, promoting metabolic toxemia.