Your gut is directly connected to your brain, by a newly discovered neuron circuit

[InitialConditions]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...ed-your-brain-newly-discovered-neuron-circuit

The human gut is lined with more than 100 million nerve cells—it’s practically a brain unto itself. And indeed, the gut actually talks to the brain, releasing hormones into the bloodstream that, over the course of about 10 minutes, tell us how hungry it is, or if we shouldn’t have eaten an entire pizza. But a new study reveals the gut has a much more direct connection to the brain through a neural circuit that allows it to transmit signals in mere seconds. The findings could lead to new treatments for obesity, eating disorders, and even depression and autism—all of which have been linked to a malfunctioning gut.

The study reveals “a new set of pathways that use gut cells to rapidly communicate with … the brain stem,” says Daniel Drucker, a clinician-scientist who studies gut disorders at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, who was not involved with the work. Although many questions remain before the clinical implications become clear, he says, “This is a cool new piece of the puzzle.”

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

Hmm seems a bit of a fuss about nothing.

It makes sense that our gut would be in the business of detecting toxins to trigger the bodies response to dealing with it rapidly?

The rest seems a bit hyped up to me?

“The next step is to study whether this gut-brain signaling provides the brain with important information about the nutrients and caloric value of the food we eat, he says.”

Wow ..woah that’s a bit of a jump isn’t it? Yes and next we want to look at if the gut has a brain that if we feed it some food can make us do things against our will and make us fat ...pah! What a load of swill.!

And there’s this gem:

“There are some obvious advantages to superfast gut-brain signaling, such as detecting toxins and poison, but there may be other perks to sensing the contents of our guts in real time, he says. Whatever those are, there’s a good chance the benefits are ancient—gut sensory cells date back to one of the first multicellular organisms, a flat creature called Trichoplax adhaerens, which arose roughly 600 million years ago”

Oh yes more smoke and mirrors ...it’s all in our genes and it dates back a long time....so? So if it’s ancient it’s good?

So in summary a small piece of work on mice that doesn’t suggest very much rather confirms that our gut senses and tells our brain what we are consuming via nerves ... a bit like taste/pain receptors in the mouth and throat? ....didn’t we already know about dopamine? Like a long time ago?

This is a classic “make a name for myself” fake news item that speculates wild theories on the back of some very small-scale binary research.

Whatever happened to being honest about the significance of results?

 

[John Mac]

The second brain in our stomachs

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18779997

 

[hixxy]

But a new study reveals the gut has a much more direct connection to the brain through a neural circuit that allows it to transmit signals in mere seconds.

I'd be surprised if it takes whole seconds to transmit a signal from the gut to the brain. For nerve transmission that wouldn't be very mere at all.

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

The second brain in our stomachs

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18779997

‘Second brain’ is the phrase that irritates me the most...it’s just journalistic spin and very misleading. There is no brain in the stomach just a lot of nerves because the alimentary canal has a complex job to do and needs to secrete things at the right time move things long etc. Obesity is a red herring.

What would be more interesting than all this guff about a magic cure for obesity would be to investigate the factors that affect IBS and dysfunction in the gut which may indeed have something to do with mis-signaling etc.

Obesity is a guarantee for funding though, so of course that’s going to be the angle of researchers and hence the ridiculous reporting by journalists like Mosley et al