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What Is That “Gut Feeling?”
People are taught from childhood to believe that the brain is essentially the “boss” of the body. While it is true that the brain is the centerpiece of our mental capacity and nervous system, it is also a fact that there are nearly one hundred million nerve cells in the gut alone- about the same number found in the spinal cord!
Fully one-half of your nerve cells are located in the gut, so your capacity for feeling and for emotional expression depends primarily on the gut (and only to a lesser extent on your brain). By the time you add together the number of nerve cells in the esophagus, stomach, and small and large intestines, there are more nerve cells in the overall digestive system than there are in the peripheral nervous system.
Most people would say the brain determines whether you are happy or sad, but they have their facts skewed. It seems the gut is more responsible than we ever imagined for mental well-being and how we feel.

You Have Two Brains
Award-winning science wondered why people get butterflies in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? And why do antidepressants targeted for the brain cause nausea or abdominal upset in millions of people who take such drugs? The reason for these common experiences is because each of us literally has two brains – the familiar one encased in our skulls and a lesser-known but vitally important one found in the human gut. Like Siamese twins, the two brains are inter-connected; when one gets upset, the other does, too.
This “second brain” in the gut is called the “enteric nervous system” (ENS). This “intestinal nervous system” consists of neurons, neurotransmitters, and messenger proteins embedded in the layers or coverings of the tissue that line the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon. (The word enteric is a Greek term for “intestine.”)
The enteric nervous system possesses a complex neural circuitry, and this “second brain” in your gut can act independently from the first brain in your body. Literally, it learns from experiences, remembers past actions and events, and produces an entire range of “gut feelings” that can influence your actions.

Do you remember the gut sensation of what we call “butterflies in your stomach?” Has anyone ever advised you to “follow your gut instinct?” We regularly hear people say their stomach indigestion caused nightmares, and patients often tell their doctors that the antidepressants they take for mood swings also improved their gastrointestinal symptoms. Now you know why.