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Chronic pain and the gut brain...

Current research suggests that there is a connection between the brain and the GI tract in the human body.  This connection is in the form of communication that goes in both directions--from brain to gut and vice versa--and it is modulated (via neurohormones) by the microbes that live within our GI tract, known as normal flora.



Gut Brain Illustration




This connection is a hot research topic these days.  There is evidence that the connectivity between the two plays a role in conditions such as anxiety and irritable bowel syndrome.  It also appears that when the normal flora is out of balance--perhaps due to a course of antibiotics or an illness--that the gut brain axis is affected, causing a disturbance to the bidirectional communications across the gut brain axis. That is why probiotics have entered the marketplace; they claim to restore normal colonization to a disturbed GI microbiota.

Now some research is focusing on the role of the gut brain axis in chronic pain syndromes. The Wellcome trust is gathering a team of researchers in Cambridge this month to discuss this very topic. Many unanswered questions remain...here are a few in my mind.


  • Do probiotics really help to restore normal flora?  If so, what role do they play in improving the performance of the gut-brain axis?
  • Does the gut-brain axis really play a role in chronic pain syndromes?  Are there other syndromes that we have never believed connected to the gut-brain axis that should be explored?
  • Can changes in diet improve or worsen a a given condition due to the affect they have on the gut-brain axis?

Sources:newstatesman.com;wikipedia;mikedaisley.com

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