The gut-brain connection strikes again
As biology continues to mature as a science, we learn more and more how the small intestines, i.e. the gut, must be healthy to have a healthy brain. Mind is a different thing altogether and consciousness is, most likely, an all-body mechanism, so being mentally ill is not about the brain so much as it is about the whole body and specifically about the gut. Human beings have known for a long time that if a person goes long enough without sleep, he can die. The utterly fascinating thing that research is showing is that when we go without sleep long enough, it’s not so much the brain that is negatively affected, as it is the gut. We absolutely must sleep or oxidative stress wrecks our small intestines and we die. But we’ll probably go crazy first…—MR
Why Do We Die Without Sleep?
Conversation with Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, March 22, 2022.
The reasons why sleep is so vital often hide in unexpected parts of the body, as podcast host Steven Strogatz discovers in conversations with researchers Dragana Rogulja and Alex Keene.
