I heard about something last night about this from a close family friend and did some research on it and found this link. It is a weird article, but interesting at least, and may give some ideas as to why people make certain "Gut" decisions, as well as why we may crave certain foods when we are distressed.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_105441.html

Certainly may not be true...but it is interesting to me :confused:

Hmm....I don't know what to make of this one....A coupla quotes:

This 'second brain' is made up of a knot of brain nerves in the digestive tract. It is thought to involve around 100 billion nerve cells - more than held in the spinal cord.

100 billion nerve cells? That is how many cells you have in your brain (the one in your head). Seems like that many nerve cells would result in a pretty sizeable mass.

The second brain was rediscovered by Michael Gershorn, of the University of Colombia in New York, after it was forgotten by science.

University of Colombia? Shouldn't that be in South America? lol....I think they mean Columbia University in NYC.

I don't know about this "second brain" business, but I have no doubt that we have complex regulatory mechanisms that alter our food preferences based on nutritional needs. I watched a show on National Geographic Channel (I think) where some guy was stranded in a life raft in the ocean. He was able to catch fish, but the meat of fish is nutritionally deficient in many key vitamins....but the organs, and eyes, are rich in them. At first, he threw those things out (didn't eat them), but after awhile, he began craving the heart, liver, and eyes of the fish....and even though under normal circumstances, he would find these things repellent, he said that they tasted absolutely delicious. In other words, his food preferences were shaped by his body's nutritional requirements.

I just looked the guy up (and, the article spelled his name incorrectly too....lol). Basically, it sounds like the stomach and digestive system have regulatory systems that are independent of both the brain and the spinal cord. This is probably why it is called a "second brain".

http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/gsas/anatomy/Faculty/Gershon/

Yeah I did not think that we would really have a "Second Brain" mass located in our digestive system...like something out of a bad Horror Movie, but the idea of a network of cells causing subconscious thoughts and possible cravings I could understand more. But the idea of an actual brain "chillin" somewhere down in the intestines seems like perhaps it may have been found a bit earlier than the past several years.

I highly doubt that during autopsies and things that the doctors find the "second brain" and just toss it out, and label it an undigested meat ball or something.

I would think they would have been like "Whoa...does this look familiar...or am I sauced from all this Formaldehyde...this looks like a brain to me" We would have least read about it on some Tabloid at the store LOL.

Well, that website is certainly good at typos.:lol:

Michael Gershon wrote a book called The second brain : the scientific basis of gut instinct and a groundbreaking new understanding of nervous disorders of the stomach and intestine. It was written in 1998. I just got it out of the library recently because the last time I took it out I didn't have time to read it.:doh:

A lot of the neurotransmitters in the brain are mirrored in the gut, which is how I found out about this book originally. Interesting stuff!:tu:

Hmm....I don't know what to make of this one....A coupla quotes:



100 billion nerve cells? That is how many cells you have in your brain (the one in your head). Seems like that many nerve cells would result in a pretty sizeable mass.



University of Colombia? Shouldn't that be in South America? lol....I think they mean Columbia University in NYC.

I don't know about this "second brain" business, but I have no doubt that we have complex regulatory mechanisms that alter our food preferences based on nutritional needs. I watched a show on National Geographic Channel (I think) where some guy was stranded in a life raft in the ocean. He was able to catch fish, but the meat of fish is nutritionally deficient in many key vitamins....but the organs, and eyes, are rich in them. At first, he threw those things out (didn't eat them), but after awhile, he began craving the heart, liver, and eyes of the fish....and even though under normal circumstances, he would find these things repellent, he said that they tasted absolutely delicious. In other words, his food preferences were shaped by his body's nutritional requirements.

Actually we do have a sizeable mass in our gut. Just think how long the small intestine is (>20 feet) and then consider that there are individual neurons clustered in the walls of the ENTIRE GI tract. Even though in an individual area the "mass" of the neurons is not great the GI tract is so long that the total amount of neurons is staggering.