Butterflies in your stomach. We all feel it at some point in our lives, may it be when we're walking up to the stage, talking to our teachers about why our grades are low (don’t worry, we’ve all been there), or waiting for that Very Important Email to show up in our inbox. We say it’s because of nerves… and yeah, it literally is your nerves. In fact, there’s an entire portion of your nervous system down there!
That portion is called your enteric nervous system, and it actually contains five times as many nerve cells as the spinal cord! But why exactly do we have so many neurons (nerve cells) there? Well, moving and digesting food is really important to your entire body, so naturally, we have a special task force to help that happen. Those nerves are important in moving food along the digestive system by exchanging sensory information about what we perceive as “fullness” with the brain, telling you when to start feeling hungry again. They also respond to signals from the immune system and the release of hormones in the bloodstream.
It’s a pity we only focus on the brain and spinal cord in class when we should probably be paying a lot more attention to the enteric nervous system. Several diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and ALS cause damage in the enteric nervous system as well as the brain and spinal cord. In fact, symptoms of Parkinson’s are often found much earlier in the enteric nervous system than in the brain, making it a lovely tool for early diagnosis. In addition, it’s a lot easier to collect samples from your digestive tract than from your brain; you’d rather have doctors poking around your gut than your precious brain cells!
But what exactly does this have to do with the butterflies in my stomach, you ask? Don't worry, we have an explanation for you! When you feel anxious, your nervous system triggers the release of two hormones: adrenaline and cortisol. These are very important in what we know as the “fight or flight” response, and the enteric nervous system responds by moving blood away from the digestive system and towards your heart and leg muscles: regions very important for fighting or flighting fleeing! You may also feel the urge to use the restroom when you become nervous: also the courtesy of your fight or flight response! Also better for fighting or fleeing is being able to rid yourself of the extra weight. Great for our ancestors, maybe not so great for our lives today. :(
So the next time you get those oh-so-pervasive butterflies in your stomach, remember that it’s your enteric nervous system and your fight or flight response doing the job! Yeah, okay, that’s not very helpful for calming your nerves. But if you can take a nice, deep breath, you can potentially switch off that fight or flight feeling; maybe that will help. :)
Post By: Roshni P. M.
Photo credits: Calvin Mano, Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/CXS27RrJObQ
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