Gut Health: How Your ‘Second Brain’ Affects Your Mood

That gut feeling is more than a hunch – it’s a signal from your body’s second brain. 

Getting that gut feeling or experiencing butterflies is because you’re receiving signals from what scientists call your “second brain” or enteric nervous system. This second brain consists of two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells that line your gastrointestinal tract from esophagus to your rectum – more than in either the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system – and goes far beyond just digesting food. 

Your second brain may spur on emotional shifts experienced by people coping with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional bowel problems such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating, pain and stomach upset. Although researchers and doctors initially thought anxiety and depression contributed to these problems, studies show that it may also be the other way around. There’s evidence to suggest that irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the central nervous system (CNS) that trigger mood changes. 

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