Transcript

My gut tells me something is up. Oh, but does a gut instinct really exist, or is it merely a figure of speech? The idea that our gut exercises influence over our state of mind isn't new. According to scientific American, many 19th and 20th century scientists believe that, in some cases, depression, anxiety, psychosis and the like, the link to waste accumulating in the colon. Purchase and sometimes bowel surgeries weren't all that uncommon before they were discarded as unscientific, these scientists may have been onto something. You likely won't be surprised that there exists a serious biochemical signal between our gut and the brain called the brain gut axis. What may be surprising, however, is the fact that many of these signals are being transmitted and received by tiny organisms called microbes tucked away in your innards, collectively forming what is called your microbiome.

That's right, believe it or not, at this very moment, your thoughts are partly being mediated by these minuscule visitors residing in your gastrointestinal tract. Find that hard to believe. Let's look at the experiments. Microbes seem to have an astounding effect on the social aspect of our personality. According to scientific American a group at McMasters University found that when they took microbes from one mouse and introduced a sample to another, the latter often exhibited personality characteristics similar to those of their original microbe owner, shy mice would become slightly more bold while ordinarily audacious, mice would become more cautious and shy.