Season 2, Episode 25: Gastrointestinal Disease

If you’ve ever gone with your gut to make a decision or felt butterflies in your stomach when nervous, you’re likely getting signals from an unexpected source: your second brain. Hidden in the walls of the digestive system, this brain in your gut is revolutionizing medicine’s understanding of the links between digestion, mood, behavior, health, and even the way you think. Add increased understanding of the influence gut bacteria has on disease and health, called our microbiome, and we may begin to grasp that our gut or gastrointestinal system has a much more complex role in human health beyond nutrition and energy, as we learn on this episode.