Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ

by Giulia Enders

It is now generally accepted in scientific circles that people with certain digestive problems often suffer from nervous disorders of the gut. Their gut then sends signals to the part of the brain that processes negative feelings, although they have done nothing bad.

While some of us might be sitting around thinking “Nobody cares about me!”, our heart is currently working its seventeen-thousandth twenty-four-hour shift—and would have every right to feel a little forgotten when its owner thinks such thoughts.

Squatting has been the natural defecation position for humans since time immemorial.

Hemorrhoids, digestive diseases like diverticulitis, and even constipation are common only in countries where people generally sit on some kind of chair to pass their stool.

This is due not to lack of tissue strength, especially in young people, but to the fact that there is too much pressure on the end of the gut.

Saliva is basically filtered blood. The salivary glands sieve the blood, keeping back the red blood cells, which are needed in our arteries, not in our mouth. But calcium, hormones, and some products of our immune system enter the saliva from the blood. That explains why each person’s saliva is slightly different.

In fact, saliva analysis can be used to test for diseases of the immune system or for certain hormones.

Our saliva contains one painkiller that is stronger than morphine. It is called opiorphin and was only discovered in 2006.

When we are asleep, we produce very little saliva.

That’s good news for those who tend to drool into their pillow. If they produced the full daytime quota of 2 to 3 US pints (1 to 1.5 liters) during the night, too, the results would not be particularly pleasant.

The fact that we produce so little saliva at night explains why many people have bad breath or a sore throat in the morning. Eight hours of scarce salivation me...