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Scientists have nicknamed our stomach as 'the second brain' Why? Because it contains the largest and most often overlooked network of neurons second only to the brain itself.
"A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body. Although its influence is far-reaching, the second brain is not the seat of any conscious thoughts or decision-making. Technically known as the enteric nervous system, the second brain consists of sheaths of neurons embedded in the walls of the long tube of our gut, or alimentary canal, which measures about nine meters end to end from the esophagus to the anus. The second brain contains some 100 million neurons, more than in either the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system. This multitude of neurons in the enteric nervous system enables us to "feel" the inner world of our gut and its contents. Much of this neural firepower comes to bear in the elaborate daily grind of digestion. Breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, and expelling of waste requires chemical processing, mechanical mixing and rhythmic muscle contractions that move everything on down the line. Thus equipped with its own reflexes and senses, the second brain can control gut behavior independently of the brain. We likely evolved this intricate web of nerves to perform digestion and excretion "on site," rather than remotely from our brains through the middleman of the spinal cord. The brain in the head doesn't need to get its hands dirty with the messy business of digestion, which is delegated to the brain in the gut. The second brain's complexity likely cannot be interpreted through this process alone. "The system is way too complicated to have evolved only to make sure things move out of your colon," says Emeran Mayer, professor of physiology, psychiatry and bio behavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.). For example, scientists were shocked to learn that about 90 percent of the fibers in the primary visceral nerve, the vagus, carry information from the gut to the brain and not the other way around. Essentially, when someone tells you to trust your 'gut feeling', it isn't something you should ignore."
So, why the psych evaluation when we are going to get WLS? You can read many articles that will tell you that it is because they want you to be successful after the surgery, but one of the primary reasons that isn't normally discussed is the fact that for DS and bypass patients, they are about to sever the connection between your second brain and your head and they want to make sure you can handle it! Your emotions are tied from your stomach to your head and have been your whole life, whether you realized it or not. Then, willingly, you allowed a surgeon to go in, sever that connection and reroute your insides. It isn't something you can understand easily if you haven't had the surgery, but it becomes all too clear to those who find themselves at war with their new tummies for a time after surgery. While your head says 'Yes, that hamburger will taste amazing' and your taste buds may agree, the moment it hits your 'new' tummy, it could easily be rejected and then things become unpleasant. The brain to brain connection is forever gone. After surgery, you have to learn how to listen to both your head and tummy. You still have 2 brains...they just no longer communicate, which can be SUPER FRUSTRATING! Take your time, experiment with different foods. Always start off slow with your meals and give it a bit of time to see if your stomach will be tolerant of what you are eating. Learn to listen to your gut, it has no problem letting you know if it is unhappy or not with your food choices. An immediate indicator after a few bites of a meal is nausea. That's your warning that it isn't happy and you need to change course because whether you like it or not, your stomach is calling the shots with the foods you eat for the rest of your life, not your head! It is after all, the tool you put in place to help you lose weight, so it can only be beneficial to get on board and do what it wants you to do!
"A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body. Although its influence is far-reaching, the second brain is not the seat of any conscious thoughts or decision-making. Technically known as the enteric nervous system, the second brain consists of sheaths of neurons embedded in the walls of the long tube of our gut, or alimentary canal, which measures about nine meters end to end from the esophagus to the anus. The second brain contains some 100 million neurons, more than in either the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system. This multitude of neurons in the enteric nervous system enables us to "feel" the inner world of our gut and its contents. Much of this neural firepower comes to bear in the elaborate daily grind of digestion. Breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, and expelling of waste requires chemical processing, mechanical mixing and rhythmic muscle contractions that move everything on down the line. Thus equipped with its own reflexes and senses, the second brain can control gut behavior independently of the brain. We likely evolved this intricate web of nerves to perform digestion and excretion "on site," rather than remotely from our brains through the middleman of the spinal cord. The brain in the head doesn't need to get its hands dirty with the messy business of digestion, which is delegated to the brain in the gut. The second brain's complexity likely cannot be interpreted through this process alone. "The system is way too complicated to have evolved only to make sure things move out of your colon," says Emeran Mayer, professor of physiology, psychiatry and bio behavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.). For example, scientists were shocked to learn that about 90 percent of the fibers in the primary visceral nerve, the vagus, carry information from the gut to the brain and not the other way around. Essentially, when someone tells you to trust your 'gut feeling', it isn't something you should ignore."
So, why the psych evaluation when we are going to get WLS? You can read many articles that will tell you that it is because they want you to be successful after the surgery, but one of the primary reasons that isn't normally discussed is the fact that for DS and bypass patients, they are about to sever the connection between your second brain and your head and they want to make sure you can handle it! Your emotions are tied from your stomach to your head and have been your whole life, whether you realized it or not. Then, willingly, you allowed a surgeon to go in, sever that connection and reroute your insides. It isn't something you can understand easily if you haven't had the surgery, but it becomes all too clear to those who find themselves at war with their new tummies for a time after surgery. While your head says 'Yes, that hamburger will taste amazing' and your taste buds may agree, the moment it hits your 'new' tummy, it could easily be rejected and then things become unpleasant. The brain to brain connection is forever gone. After surgery, you have to learn how to listen to both your head and tummy. You still have 2 brains...they just no longer communicate, which can be SUPER FRUSTRATING! Take your time, experiment with different foods. Always start off slow with your meals and give it a bit of time to see if your stomach will be tolerant of what you are eating. Learn to listen to your gut, it has no problem letting you know if it is unhappy or not with your food choices. An immediate indicator after a few bites of a meal is nausea. That's your warning that it isn't happy and you need to change course because whether you like it or not, your stomach is calling the shots with the foods you eat for the rest of your life, not your head! It is after all, the tool you put in place to help you lose weight, so it can only be beneficial to get on board and do what it wants you to do!
