The Blue Zone, The Gut and the Brain
America was 5th in life expectancy but now some reports have us at 35th and others as low as 49th.
We are talking about getting out of the Nutrient Famine and living in the Blue Zone. The Blue Zones are Communities in the world where people have an average life and health span of over 100 years.
We have been talking about the importance of water for health. The water source for most farm plants weather industrially grown or organically grown and let’s not even talk about foreign grown, you would never drink. Since vegetables are 70 to 96 percent water, you drink that water every time you eat most vegetables and fruits.
For the next several weeks, we are talking about the Gut, the Second Brain. Last week, we reported the disturbing fact that 40 million Americans will experience some form of gut poisoning from food every year. While some of that poisoning may cause minor discomforts, most of it may have long term consequences. In fact, many top scientists and physician think that Hippocrates the father of western medicine might be right. More than 2000 years ago, he said,” diseases start in the gut.
Additionally, we told you, if you flatten out the gut it has more surface area than a tennis court. Why is this critical, because every inch has to be defended from attacks from things the body comes in contact with. That is why up to 80% of the immune system is in the gut. And 100% of your T cells that regulate the immune system are in the gut. We now know that diseases, like Type 1 diabetes, Rheumatoid arthritis, Psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis, Multiple sclerosis, lupus , Inflammatory bowel disease are autoimmune. There are more than 80 different autoimmune diseases. Now diseases like Alzheimer and heart disease are on the list. More about this critical fact later.
Next, we told you that the while every cell in the body, including bone cells, heart cells, and brain cells can regenerates every 7 to 10 years, the lining of the stomach regenerated the fastest. Every 7 days! Why is this important, because RIGHT REGENERATION is a key to being healthy over a 100 years. In the Blue Zone, there is RIGHT REGENERATION. More about how to regenerate your body and stay young and healthy.
Finally, last week we told you, a healthy gut has more 300 trillion good bacteria. Those bacteria weigh as much as twice that of the brain. We reminded you, that human beings have roughly 20,500 genes, which is less than the water flea and genetically, every person in the world is 99.9 percent the same, each person has a huge array of gut bacteria that is as unique as a fingerprint. What your microbiome or gut bacteria fingerprint looks like and how it functions is based on what you choose to eat, to drink, your environment including what you breathe and touch.
The gut is not just connected to the brain but extensive research has identified 12 gut microbiota axes: Gut-brain, -liver,-heart, -skin, -bone, -lung, -thyroid, -pancreas, -kidney, and -eye axes. I have gone down the rabbit hole. There is so much research and yeh lots of noise, 7 minutes is hard.
We are on the tip of vast new insight and knowledge. We know the gut has many ways to communicate, for example by the endocrine system and immune pathways, but perhaps the fastest and most direct way for the gut to influence the brain is by the Vagus nerve. Research at Duke University found it signal was 100 milliseconds—faster than an eyeblink.
It is a direct connect to the brain. Your gut muscles respond like your face muscles. It has a look for each emotion like as smile or frown on your face. Remember that knot in your stomach when you had to speak in front of the group the first time or some call a nerves stomach. Yeh your stomach has as many expressions as your face. This series will convince you, that the gut impacts your life from birth to death. Your mother was right,” learn to follow your gut!!!”
Life in the Blue Zone is a choice