Your Gut Never Lies

Till recent years, we used to say "your gut never lies" quiet philosophically. But recent scientific research says that this is correct, in fact, literally. Yes, scientists have PROVED that your gut is the "Second Brain". Read further if you want to know more, and to understand the Indian Reference. 

WHAT EXACTLY DOES THE SCIENTISTS PROVE?!

Technically known as the enteric nervous system, the second brain consists of sheaths of neurons embedded in the walls of the long tube of our gut, or alimentary canal, which measures about nine meters end to end from the esophagus to the anus. "The second brain contains some 100 million neurons, more than in either the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system", says Gershon. ( Who is Gershon?) 

In layman's words, neurons are responsible for thinking and decision making (almost synonymous with brain). More the neurons, smarter you are. (more about neurons)

So how much is 100 million neurons? Is it too much or too little?!

Human brain consists 86 billion - 100 billion neurons. So our gut contains 1/100th number of neurons as compared to human brain, and almost the same to the brain of cat. Click here for comparison of number of neurons of different species, follow this link. Many scientists contented that the neurons in the gut are responsible for digestion related functioning, but  Emeran Mayer says that the second brain is "is way too complicated to have evolved only to make sure things move out of your colon". Gershon also supported this view and said that the scientists were shocked to learn that about 90 percent of the fibers in the primary visceral nerve, the vagus, carry information from the gut to the brain and not the other way around.

Indian Reference: Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director of Precept, the name we associate with Sunburn Parties, has written a book "F?@K Knows' (I kid you not, the title is really that!) in which he explains Gut Feeling in a very user-friendly way. He has dedicated an entire chapter to it - Your Gut Is Always Right.

K. Ramkumar, Executive Director and Head of Operations & Human Resources at ICICI Bank, has written an article "Why Gut Feeling Matters"  and accepts that even in highly analytical world of banking and finance, professionals go with their gut feeling more often than revealed. 

Now that it has been scientifically proved that your gut can "think", lets move on to the lying part.

WHY DOES GUT NEVER LIE?

So we have a brain inside our tummy (sounds gross), that is not as smart as the brain in the skull, but which definitely has more free time than the brain in the head. I remember a scene from the movie 'The Dark Knight Rises':

Bruce Wayne: What's it called?

Fox: Oh, it has a long uninteresting Wayne Enterprises designation. I just took to calling it the Bat. And yes, Mr. Wayne, it does come in black.

[Bruce touches the vehicle]

Fox: Works fine, except for the autopilot. It takes a better mind than mine to fix it.

Bruce Wayne: Better mind?

Fox: Well, I was trying to be modest. A less busy mind. Yours.

Our brain inside our tummy is burdened with only the job of digestion, and some other similar functions, but is free to think for the most of the time [like the brain of Wayne]. Plus, it gets input from only two places: the intestines and the brain on top.

While its competitor, the brain in the skull is busy whole day thinking about your girlfriend, your job that you hate, your parents back in your hometown, and your slipping bank balance. Plus, it gets inputs from multiple places: vision from eyes, feel from skin, smell from nose, taste from mouth and of course, the consistent blabber of "but my sixth sense says...", "but I have a feeling..." and "but my gut says..." from our second brain. With so much inputs and processing to be done, our brain inside the head makes mistakes. The worst part- the brain chooses to ignore that blabber from the gut, because it thinks that the gut, being its competitor, is trying to deviate its focus and confusing it. (Like "Chatur" tries to deviate mind of "Rancho" and other engineers by slipping in porn magazines in each hostel room, in the movies '3 idiots').

But our gut is more honest than we can ever be. In its free time, it processes all the latent data and input the brain had collected over time, analyzes it, and stores it for further reference. It deciphers subtle hints that our mind, being busy, had overlooked (like the voice cracking of your girlfriend who is lying to you, or the new appointment letter from a different company that your coworker is hiding inside her bag, but is partly visible, or that folded five hundred rupee note you had seen in your friend's wallet earlier that day, but when you asked him to lend you some money, he said he doesn't have a penny on him). Our mind forgets not only the stimulus of the gut feelings, but also the responses and inferences of our second brain.

Our second brain is like a better processor of data, only slower than the brain in the skull. The gut thinks as analytically as our brain- the only problem is that since we have forgotten the source (or input data) of the output, we consider it invalid. 

Indian Reference: Anik Singhal says about how he followed his gut feeling and he averted a major business loss. Read the full story here: http://aniksingal.com/general/follow-your-gut/ .
Vineet Nayar, Vice Chairman of HCL Technologies discusses how gut feeling is more important than logic, in his blog: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/05/listening-to-your-inner-voice/

So, next time you have gut feeling about anything at all, pay heed to it. Your gut never lies. With that enlightening insight of humans, this is Prasanjit Saha wishing you a better decision-making and a happier, healthier life ahead. Ciao!

Have you ever felt your gut warning you, and saved you from an impending problem? Or have you ever followed your gut, and got into a mess? Lets see how much this theory of "Your Gut Never Lies" is actually true!!!

People:

Emeran Mayer: professor of physiology, psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.),

Michael Gershon: Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, an expert in the nascent field of neurogastroenterology.

References:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/cells.html

http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/feb/28/how-many-neurons-human-brain

http://positivelybeautiful.com/the-science-of-a-gut-feeling/

See Also:

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