Please note: transcript not 100% accurate.
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Who would have thought our gut, which is that central area of our body, might be controlling everything?
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This is Dr. Meenal and welcome to Uncover Your Eyes, where we uncover reality. As a mom and eye doctor, I wanna know it all. We’ve all had a gut feeling that something is about to happen, whether it’s right, good, or wrong. What is a gut feeling? A gut feeling is that subconscious, below conscious,
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feeling or knowing that something is going to happen. It is a phenomenon actually, that is deeply rooted between a connection of the brain and the gut. That connection is moderated by the enteric nervous system and the vagus nerve. So there’s actually a science behind gut feelings. Who would have thought?
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this sort of survival mechanism thing where you had that gut feeling that something bad or somebody was coming towards you to do something bad and this feeling would arise in you and you would act upon that. So it was that survival mechanism that was thought back in the day. And before language was developed, people used these cues, these gut feelings that they had.
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to take action and do things that they wanted to do or were supposed to do. So the psychology around gut feelings is that your brain is processing so many feelings and emotions subconsciously. And gut feelings arise when there might be a pattern connecting all these feelings, all of them together makes you have a gut feeling. Your past experiences, your history,
02:02
can also shape these gut feelings if different points are connected in the subconscious part of your brain. So let’s get down to the science behind it. Your gut is known as a secondary brain. Why? Because it has its own nervous system called the enteric nervous system. This enteric nervous system is made up of about a hundred million neurons. And then we have the vagus nerve and the vagus nerve acts as
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sort of a communication, a two-way communication between your gut and the brain. So these two things in place are what connects the gut to the brain and gives rise to this gut feeling. The gut produces 90% of the body’s serotonin level, which is a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate your mood. The gut also produces a significant amount of dopamine, which is linked to rewards and motivation.
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This chemical activity that the gut is producing is what creates these feelings that we have. And in our gut, we have these trillions of bacteria. These bacteria play an active role in regulating our emotions. So things like when we’re angry, depressed, anxious, a lot of the bacteria in our gut play a role in making us feel these gut feelings.
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For example, when the gut is stressed, we feel this feeling of butterflies in our stomach. So that’s a feeling that the gut releases because we’re stressed. So we get these butterflies. In some situations, gut feelings are great because they help us to act quickly, know what’s happening, feel those sensations of hunger fast, social cues. They’re like our secondary emotional hub. However, we can’t rely only on…
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gut feelings because sometimes our gut feelings can overshadow our actual feelings and make us not feel so good. And then we don’t really know which one to listen to, whether it’s our emotions, our fear, our anxiety, or our gut feelings that are kind of clouding that judgment. So it’s confusing, but it’s almost like we have two areas of feelings, one coming from our gut and one coming from our brain. So one coming from the enteric nervous system.
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and one coming from our brain as a central nervous system. So how do we kind of regulate our gut and make us have those positive feelings? So controlling our gut, you’ll hear about gut health a lot in the industry now because maintaining good gut health, whether it’s through meditation, eating healthy, sleeping well, eating fiber-rich foods, having regular bowel movements, all of that.
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you know, regulates your gut health and in turn regulates your secondary emotional hub where your gut feelings are coming from. Gut feelings are a remarkable blend of biology, psychology, evolution. They are such a great reminder that your body is so connected. And we’re actually just beginning to understand the gut’s role.
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in every part of our body. And who would have thought our gut, which is that central area of our body, might be controlling everything. You know, we used to think of it as only the brain controls everything. We’re starting to shift to thinking that the gut is just as important as the brain. Again, the gut-brain connection is that other nervous system called the enteric nervous system. And that’s just as important as, you know, our central nervous system.
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But we never thought that way before. So keeping your gut healthy can really help regulate those gut feelings. But those of you that have those gut feelings, you know, I, as a mom, always have that gut instinct, you know, mom instinct, I call it, sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re scared and it’s because, you know, our brain emotions and our gut emotions are kind of fighting each other and we don’t know which one to believe and are we falsely just nervous.
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And that can be troublesome, but you know, I always say as a mom, listen to your gut instinct, because sometimes you’re right. And it’s important to understand and regulate your emotions and which one is coming from where, but know that these are valid emotions. So next time you have a gut feeling, think about it. Feel it, understand it, and see if it’s a true emotion that you want to act on.
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Thank you listeners and viewers for tuning in. If you want to catch more episodes of Uncover Your Eyes, make sure to Follow or Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube. To learn more about me, follow me on Instagram @Dr.MeenalAgarwal Until next time, keep those eyes uncovered!