Think from the gut

Remember the 2006 White House Correspondent's Dinner performance by Stephen Colbert? This was the terrific opening segment:

Mr. President, my name is Stephen Colbert, and tonight it is my privilege to celebrate this president, ‘cause we're not so different, he and I. We both get it. Guys like us, we're not some brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We're not members of the factinista. We go straight from the gut. Right, sir? 

That's where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now, I know some of you are going to say, "I did look it up, and that's not true." That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that's how our nervous system works. 

Here's the video:


According to this story in the July/August 2013 Mother Jones, Colbert was actually on to something:

The gut has its own nervous system; it contains as many neurons as the spinal cord. About 95 percent of the body's serotonin, a neurotransmitter usually discussed in the context of depression, is produced in the gut.... 

So the gut isn't just where we absorb nutrients. It's also an immune hub and a second brain.

More, from Scientific American, February 2010.


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