Some Fun Info on Our Second Brain

Keriamon

Veteran Member

Joined : Jun 2005

Posts : 2976

Posted 7/16/2007 10:52 AM (GMT -7)

http://www.slate.com/id/2170307/

Hey, this article agrees with me! I have said in the past that sudden onset diarrhea is probably (although not always) a reaction to stress, since if you ever watch a wilderness show, animals that are being stalked by lions or whatnot tend to have a poop before running away.

Now, if they could just come up with a fool-proof way of telling the brain that it's not in danger so that the gut would quit dumping like it is.

gutastrophe

Regular Member

Joined : Jul 2007

Posts : 319

Posted 7/16/2007 8:38 PM (GMT -7)

I just finished reading his book, The Second Brain, and it was a revelation! For years I have been telling my therapist that my gut has a mind of it's own and that after decades of therapy, anti-anxiety and depression drugs, meditation, prayer, exercise, diet, naturopathy, yoga, etc., etc., my belly STILL does whatever the heck it wants to! So much for the notion that it all starts in the head. This books PROVES that, because the colon can do it's thing even when a body is brain dead or paralyzed, it MUST have it's own brain. I loved this book! I want to give a copy to every physician I've seen in the last 25 years who loaded me up with "nerve" pills for a problem in my gut!

Keriamon

Veteran Member

Joined : Jun 2005

Posts : 2976

Posted 7/17/2007 7:33 AM (GMT -7)

So none of the anti-depressants worked? They have recently found out that since the gut has more serotonin than the brain, that you can sometimes calm it down by using anti-depressants. But it's my understanding that only some of the newest anti-depressants work on the gut's brain.

gutastrophe

Regular Member

Joined : Jul 2007

Posts : 319

Posted 7/17/2007 11:05 PM (GMT -7)

Keriamon said...
So none of the anti-depressants worked? They have recently found out that since the gut has more serotonin than the brain, that you can sometimes calm it down by using anti-depressants. But it's my understanding that only some of the newest anti-depressants work on the gut's brain.

While it's true that the gut produces vast amounts of serotonin, it is still not known how the anti-depressants actually work on either the brain or the gut. For folks like me who suffer with C, anti-depressants are the kiss of death. I am also not too fond of taking a med that works on the brain in ways that are still a mystery to science. Why should I have to go throught the brain (which is really just fine, thank you very much!) to fix my belly? It makes no sense to me.

dbab

Veteran Member

Joined : Jan 2004

Posts : 4151

Posted 7/18/2007 6:15 AM (GMT -7)

Actually its the older tricyclic antidepressants that the experts are saying are more beneficial to the IBS patient with diarrhea rather than the new SSRIs. The SSRIs seem to help more for constipation prodominant IBS. I have tried the SSRI and they helped me the first time I took them. I got better and got off of them, went back on after awhile and had a bad reaction. Tried another SSRI and had the same thing. I wish I could take them though since it would be another way for me to get relief from C. Oh well.

"Des"

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_{Dx: IBS 1989, Diverticulosis 2004, Idiopathic Acute Colitis 2006, UCTD 2007}_{Meds: Plaquenil 400mg, Chlorzoxazone 500mg, Lyrica 50mg, Protonix 40mg, Naproxen 1000mg, Klonopin 2mg/day (tapering to PRN), Miralax 17g, Supplements}
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