by Bill Haggard, All About Health

Originally published in the November/December 2016 issue of Truly Alive magazine

I have heard reference to the gut as being our second brain and I believe these scientists may have perceived incorrectly. I think the gut may be closer to being our primary brain.

You have heard of the expression “Gut Feeling”. Intuition comes from the gut. Many of us have made decisions based on reason, but our gut told us to reconsider, or not to proceed at all, but we disregarded the message and suffered the consequences.

For instance, when we drink too much alcohol, it enters our guts and eventually affects our brains. The same is true for food. If we make poor choices in what we eat, our brain is affected positively or negatively.

Here is something to consider: When you observe someone who has dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, their symptomatology is similar to someone who is intoxicated. So tell me…if you are intoxicated from drinking more alcohol than your body can process, or if your body is toxic because of years of toxic accumulation due to poor dietary choices, emotional upsets, stress, and environmental exposures, etc. (to the point that your body can no longer hold these toxins in suspension), aren’t your “symptoms” just like someone’s who has consumed too much alcohol?

Scientists, physicians, and mental health practitioners are increasingly aware of the vital relationship between the balance of critters in our guts and how we experience our brain, mood and emotions. From a holistic vantage point, our gut is known as the “second brain” and there are structural/anatomical reasons for this reference. The “second brain”, known scientifically as the enteric nervous system, consists of sheaths of neurons located in the walls of our gut. We refer to these sheaths as the vagus nerve and it runs from our esophagus to our anus; roughly nine meters long.

The bacteria, fungi, and viruses that make up your body’s microflora outnumber your body’s cells by 10 to 1. There are over 100 trillion bacterial cells contained within the gut. Our gut sends far more information to our brain than the other way around. When our gut bacteria is out of whack due to poor choices in food and drink, we are more vulnerable to emotional discomfort, such as foggy thinking, anxiety and depression.

Here at All About Health, we specialize in gut health. Our center offers colon therapy, “Colonics”. This therapy provides the body a means to get rid of the toxins stored in the colon.

When the colon is clean, you have more energy, your blood runs cleaner and transports nutrients to their specific destinations less tainted by waste product. The lymphatic system has less to clean up. There are so many benefits to having a clean colon. Even if you eat the healthiest diet ever and take super supplements, if their waste products don’t transition out of your body in a timely fashion, they will ferment and become toxic. All this stagnation causes minor to major health problems that no pill will cure. Removing toxins is your best defense to improve your immunity to diseases.

Join us at All About Health, cleansing and restorative therapies. Let us help your body rid itself of energy draining, pain causing, and sleep disturbing toxins so you can experience a more vibrant life.

Colonics are “KING” when it comes to cleansing. 505-888-5858, www.allabouthealthinc.com.