In this post, I want to discuss about our brain, and the other second 'brain'. Yes, it is called, the gut. If any of you who had studied intensively about gastroenterology before, you would know what I mean. Our gut, is the second brain. It mirrors whatever happens in the gut, reflex to the brain as well. You could call human species as man or woman, with two brains. Besides, I will also discuss about temperature regulation as well, how it affects our sleep wake cycles.
Now, it is your central nervous system in the form of your brain and gut that responds to your endocrine system. Your hormones report changes in your HPA axis to your immune system, which uses cytokines ir neuropeptides to direct all traffic with regard to homeostasis. The immune system is much more than bone marrow or spleen, peyer's patches or thymus cells. Even the lymph system is only a part of what we call the immune system. Those sites are actually just factories for the production of white cells, lymphocytes, or now the infamous T cells.
About 85% of the full force of your defensive immune system resides in your intestines or gut. I did discuss about about the importance of gut flora in the last post, and I will stress a bit more in this post as well. Well, this makes sense, since most toxins will enter through your mouth.
Even though we are led to believe that the immune system is our defense system, nothing could be further from the truth. The immune system is a planetary, not individual. Our hormonal interface with the world in the form of HPA axis means the immune system is really "the man behind the curtain", working the knobs and dials that make the brain seem so competent.
The element of the immune system, gut, skin, fat, lymph, brain and glands, all recogniz, communicate, memorize, react and even plan to survive earth changes that have been timed into our programming by millennia of experience. These capabilities mean that the immune system is a sentient, on its own, as yo think you are.
It also makes sense that approximately 85% of the immune system is located in the gut because the gut was your ORIGINAL brain! Sound surprise? Do your own research and find out. The real clue to the overwhelming power and control the immune system has comes in the realization that it is completely mobile, so like the free thinking individual you perceive yourself to be, The immune system within is, at least, your equal.
Your immune system controls your behavior by controlling neurotransmitter activity. All immune cells have receptors to read both neurotransmitters and hormones controlling energy regulation and sex hormones as well. By the same token, the immune expressions called cytokines are active in your gut and your brain and your fat base and gonads.
It's the immune system, locked in step with environmental pressure and the bio-ecosphere, that can spell Judgement Day, either by lack of defense or an all-out attack on your body. If you lose your balance with other life forms or the cosmos, the immune system reacts to compensate. Sometimes, it's really just the compensatory mechanisms that are the real causes of what we perceive to be disease. When you experience a sore throat in the form of a viral infection, the pain you feel is not borne of the virus at all. It is instead, the pain of dying cells being sacrificed or killed by your own immune system. The same goes for the body aches, fever, and headache. It's not the pathogen at all making you sick. It's a planetary immune system in you making you sick in an attempt to rid you of the virus infected tissue at the point of origin, which is your throat or nose, all to restore order to all living things. If the virus makes it all the way to the stomach, your immune system will sacrifice the lining there too, to shed the virus. Then, you will have a stomachache and diarrhea to add to your misery.
Now, let's talk about temperature regulation. During sleep, temperature regulation is another antibacterial strategy we have evolved. While a very warm organism has more of an adaptive advantage through flexibility in acquiring new habitats, the constant heat provides optimal conditions for the growth of most bacteria. The best bet is to cool down. That's why our temperature drops at night. Make sense?
Since you can't food in the dark, in fact, it's more likely you would become food. Melatonin acts as a rheostat that lowers body temperature during NREM (non rapid eye movement) sleep, in order to slow metabolic processes and stave off hunger. the bonus is that the bacteria also respond to the less than soothing temperature, the cold that slows our metabolism also slows theirs.
At the beginning of sleep, you dream a little, while you cool down as melatonin rises, you dream again during the predawn hours before you wake up, as melatonin falls and you warm up. Mammals in cold climates sleep for months at a time, or hibernate, to slow metabolic processes during food scarcity and darker days. Cooling us down in the dark, melatonin does antioxidant work, times ovarian and testicular function, and revs up the immune system for the next waking period, when we must keep harmful microbes out from behind the front lines.
Sleep is the biggest immunological defense scheme we have come up with yet, because not only does it defend us against other organisms in our environment, it defends us against starvation by the insulin-melatonin system. Insulin is produced only when your body senses sugar or stress. Since stress is heralded by cortisol, and cortisol is elevated as long as you're bathed in light, circidian rhythmicity or day night cycles, along with carbohydrates, control your insulin production.
Light and dark cycles control insulin so you can store fat for hibernation, or dormancy. Long days meant the end of summer and food supply. The short sleep cycles of long days translate hormonally into an increased need for carbs to store fat and cascade other hormones to put you to sleep. Carbohydrates craving is a precursor to sleep that we all still respond to even night that we are up late.
Hibernation drives us to eat ice cream or have a glass of wine after a long day. Remember, a midnight snack is never a hard boiled egg. Ask yourself, what would you go for when you have midnight craving or hungry? Steam fish over pizza? or raw eggs over donuts? You know the answer to it. The last thing you think about, the last thing you want to eat before surrendering the light, is always any kind of sugar you can get your hands on. Agree?
Insulin secretion is controlled by how much carbs or sugar you eat, the food you eat, but the food you want is controlled by your immune system responding to perceived seasonal variation in the light. When your body and brain need sleep to maintain immunity and reproductive capacity, melatonin and prolactin must surge. We even have melatonin receptors on our ovaries and testes that read light and dark cycles. Yes, you did not read wrong.
Melatonin is a potent antioxidant that along with prolactin, controls immunity while you sleep. Without sleep, you become defenseless and autoimmune. Bad news! Your immune system too, like every other mechanism of life, is comprised of a sacred duality. Before I sign off this post, remember this, 'Get up with the sun, sleep with the moon, eat only your share, and be fruitful and multiply". That's it. That's what you were built for, no more, no less. Evolution has fine tuned you for, really, nothing more.
The element of the immune system, gut, skin, fat, lymph, brain and glands, all recogniz, communicate, memorize, react and even plan to survive earth changes that have been timed into our programming by millennia of experience. These capabilities mean that the immune system is a sentient, on its own, as yo think you are.
It also makes sense that approximately 85% of the immune system is located in the gut because the gut was your ORIGINAL brain! Sound surprise? Do your own research and find out. The real clue to the overwhelming power and control the immune system has comes in the realization that it is completely mobile, so like the free thinking individual you perceive yourself to be, The immune system within is, at least, your equal.
Your immune system controls your behavior by controlling neurotransmitter activity. All immune cells have receptors to read both neurotransmitters and hormones controlling energy regulation and sex hormones as well. By the same token, the immune expressions called cytokines are active in your gut and your brain and your fat base and gonads.
It's the immune system, locked in step with environmental pressure and the bio-ecosphere, that can spell Judgement Day, either by lack of defense or an all-out attack on your body. If you lose your balance with other life forms or the cosmos, the immune system reacts to compensate. Sometimes, it's really just the compensatory mechanisms that are the real causes of what we perceive to be disease. When you experience a sore throat in the form of a viral infection, the pain you feel is not borne of the virus at all. It is instead, the pain of dying cells being sacrificed or killed by your own immune system. The same goes for the body aches, fever, and headache. It's not the pathogen at all making you sick. It's a planetary immune system in you making you sick in an attempt to rid you of the virus infected tissue at the point of origin, which is your throat or nose, all to restore order to all living things. If the virus makes it all the way to the stomach, your immune system will sacrifice the lining there too, to shed the virus. Then, you will have a stomachache and diarrhea to add to your misery.
Now, let's talk about temperature regulation. During sleep, temperature regulation is another antibacterial strategy we have evolved. While a very warm organism has more of an adaptive advantage through flexibility in acquiring new habitats, the constant heat provides optimal conditions for the growth of most bacteria. The best bet is to cool down. That's why our temperature drops at night. Make sense?
Since you can't food in the dark, in fact, it's more likely you would become food. Melatonin acts as a rheostat that lowers body temperature during NREM (non rapid eye movement) sleep, in order to slow metabolic processes and stave off hunger. the bonus is that the bacteria also respond to the less than soothing temperature, the cold that slows our metabolism also slows theirs.
At the beginning of sleep, you dream a little, while you cool down as melatonin rises, you dream again during the predawn hours before you wake up, as melatonin falls and you warm up. Mammals in cold climates sleep for months at a time, or hibernate, to slow metabolic processes during food scarcity and darker days. Cooling us down in the dark, melatonin does antioxidant work, times ovarian and testicular function, and revs up the immune system for the next waking period, when we must keep harmful microbes out from behind the front lines.
Sleep is the biggest immunological defense scheme we have come up with yet, because not only does it defend us against other organisms in our environment, it defends us against starvation by the insulin-melatonin system. Insulin is produced only when your body senses sugar or stress. Since stress is heralded by cortisol, and cortisol is elevated as long as you're bathed in light, circidian rhythmicity or day night cycles, along with carbohydrates, control your insulin production.
Light and dark cycles control insulin so you can store fat for hibernation, or dormancy. Long days meant the end of summer and food supply. The short sleep cycles of long days translate hormonally into an increased need for carbs to store fat and cascade other hormones to put you to sleep. Carbohydrates craving is a precursor to sleep that we all still respond to even night that we are up late.
Hibernation drives us to eat ice cream or have a glass of wine after a long day. Remember, a midnight snack is never a hard boiled egg. Ask yourself, what would you go for when you have midnight craving or hungry? Steam fish over pizza? or raw eggs over donuts? You know the answer to it. The last thing you think about, the last thing you want to eat before surrendering the light, is always any kind of sugar you can get your hands on. Agree?
Insulin secretion is controlled by how much carbs or sugar you eat, the food you eat, but the food you want is controlled by your immune system responding to perceived seasonal variation in the light. When your body and brain need sleep to maintain immunity and reproductive capacity, melatonin and prolactin must surge. We even have melatonin receptors on our ovaries and testes that read light and dark cycles. Yes, you did not read wrong.
Melatonin is a potent antioxidant that along with prolactin, controls immunity while you sleep. Without sleep, you become defenseless and autoimmune. Bad news! Your immune system too, like every other mechanism of life, is comprised of a sacred duality. Before I sign off this post, remember this, 'Get up with the sun, sleep with the moon, eat only your share, and be fruitful and multiply". That's it. That's what you were built for, no more, no less. Evolution has fine tuned you for, really, nothing more.
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