The Science of Your Gut Sense & the Gut-Brain Axis | Dr. Diego Bohórquez

This section of the episode develops the topic through the following source points: Please note that this transcript is not in its final form and will be edited. Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Diego Borque. Dr. Diego Borque is a professor of medicine and neurobiology at Duke University. He did his training in gastrointestinal physiology and nutrition and later neuroscience, and by combining that unique training and expertise, he's considered a pioneer and leader in so-called gut sensing or the gut brain axis. Now, when most people hear the words gut-brain axis, they immediately think of the so-called microbiome, which is extremely important, but that is not the topic of Dr. Borque expertise. Dr. Borque focuses on the actual sensing that occurs within one's gut, just as one would sense light with their eyes or sound waves with their ears for hearing. Our gut contains receptors that respond to specific components of food, including amino acids, fats, sugars, and other aspects of food including temperature, acidity, and other micronutrients that are contained in food that give our gut the clear picture of what is happening at the level of the types and qualities of food that we ingest, and then communicate that below our conscious detection to our brain in order to drive specific patterns of thinking, emotion and behavior. And of course, everybody has heard of our so-called gut sense or our ability to believe or feel certain things based on perceptions that are below or somehow different from conventional language. Today, Dr. Borque teaches us about all aspects of gut sensing, how it occurs at the level of specific neurons and neural circuits, how the brain responds to that, how specific foods and components of food impact not just our feeling of digestion or feeling good or bad about what we ate, but indeed how we feel overall, how safe we feel, how excited we feel, whether or not we feel depressed or sad, angry, or happy. Today's discussion, I promise you, is unique among all discussions of neuroscience, at least that I've heard previously in that it combines two seemingly disparate fields, nutrition and neuroscience. Indeed, today's discussion gets into how different foods and food combinations impact how we feel and what we crave and what we tend to avoid. We also get to hear the absolutely extraordinary story of Dr. Borches upbringing in the Amazon jungle and how his knowledge and intuition about plants has influenced his science and how the incredible science that his laboratory is doing relates to all of us and our ability to better tap into our gut sense. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research walls at Stanford. It is however part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is JoVE. JoVE makes medical grade red light therapy devices. Now, if there's one thing that I've consistently emphasized on this podcast, it's the incredible impact that light meaning photons can have on our mental health and physical health. Red and near infrared light has been shown to have profound effects on improving cell health, which can help with faster muscle recovery, boosting healthier skin, reducing pain and inflammation, enhancing sleep, and much more. What sets Juve apart is that it uses clinically effective wavelengths, emits a safe and effective dose of red and near infrared light, and most importantly, offers the only true medical grade red light panel available. I personally try to use the handheld juve Go unit as it's called every day and especially when I'm on the road traveling. If you'd like to try JoVE, you can go to jove.com/huberman. That's JOO vv.com/huberman. JoVE is offering an exclusive discount to Huberman Lab podcast listeners with up to $400 off jev products. Again, that's jo.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need. That means the electrolytes, sodium, magnesium, and potassium in the correct amounts and ratios and nothing you don't, which means no sugar.