Thanks to Elise Fussell for bringing our attention to the great article below on the gut and the mind.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424053111904265504576566820066488938-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwMDEyNDAyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email_bot
And then Lee recently highlighted this important story.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110914154408.htm
Really interesting article about the probiotics. My Irish grandmother used to have an expression: “I spleen against that”, meaning, her gut was telling her to avoid something, or that she was disgusted by a situation. The actual function of the spleen as part of the gut..plays out it’s metaphorical associations.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566820066488938.html here is the link to the first story if the one above doesn’t work for you.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566820066488938.html here is the link to the first story if the one above doesn’t work for you.
Interesting article, maybe some of our western wired-type behavior is from the lack of these bacteria in our guts. Unless you eat fermented (and not heat killed) foods or yoghurt you wouldn’t encounter these much. Much of the world still actively eats naturally fermented foods. Any thoughts on probiotics and dogs?
I agree that this is an amazing direction of research. There’s a presentation on TED somewhere about the relationship of humans to the bacteria, which are far more numerous in our bodies than our own cells, and that there is a network of communication between all these bacteria within and without and which interfaces with our cells, and that the bacteria contribute 100 times more genetic material to the interaction than our own DNA. In this context the author then poses the question, what part of our mind is due to our human cells and genes, and what is due to the bacteria that cohabit within and without our bodies? This kind of research confirms my thesis that intelligence is the result of a network consciousness rather than a self-contained computational agency of mind.